About the Artist
As an artist, I try to visualize the elusive. In translating stories, complex or abstract concepts and feelings with poetic and symbolic images. These images exude an air of mysticism and universality. Consciousness, religion, spirituality, life and death and philosophy are themes and sources from which I draw and that often return in my work.My work comes into its own in analogue techniques, such as etching, different paints, inks, chalks and pencils. My materiality and experimenting while making is important. I often let myself be guided by the materials I use, and let the material tell a part of the story.
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Anika Hochstenbach
It’s a (oil) painting discovering the flesh of the body. Showing the viewer what I see when I look down at my body; I try to be objective, but thoughts and fears always show up. Through depiction I can find a place of objectivity around this body.
About the Artist
My work consists of oil paintings and (oil pastel) drawings. In these pieces, I depict my fascination with the fleshly aspect of the body. The curves, folds and colors; the red of the cheeks or blue of the eye bags. The search for all these details is an attempt to make myself feel comfortable in the body; everyone has a body, but not everyone feels at home in it. By depicting my body and those of my loved ones, I have found a way to give it care and attention. I stroke the colors of the skin on the canvas with my brush. It allows me to distance myself from judgements about the body; it becomes mere paint on canvas, just as the body is mere flesh on bones.
