Artist Profile
Karenina Fabrizzi is an Italian artist who lives and works in Barcelona, Spain. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina where she later studied her Fine Art and Graphic Design Degree, she went on to study in several European countries including Germany, Spain and London. A keen traveller, her training later took her as far as New York, a favourite city of hers, where she spent a period as painting assistant to the American Pop artist Jeff Koons. Karenina’s work has been exhibited all over the world and is held in many private collections internationally.
I have been always fascinated by nature, the behaviour of animals, the way that flowers and plants grow and how we are a big part of it. In my work I want to bring nature closer to the viewer, to connect people with their roots and memories. Organic elements are essential as they show us like in a fairy tale, the link between the subconscious mind and the actual world – a subtle injection of ambiguity that blurs the gap between the ordinary and the fantastic. This, besides having an apparent dark side, also embodies a sense of fragility and vulnerability, which seems to be a consistent characteristic of my work.”
Karenina Fabrizzi
What We Love About Karenina's Work
I first saw Karenina’s work in a gallery in Manchester. I remember standing in front of one of her giant paintings and actually feeling quite moved by it. It was beautiful and whimsical, yet raw and confronting in some way. Her work reminded me of the Russian-French painter Marc Chagall’s naive dreamlike imagery where figures fly and animals are symbols for human nature and also it has the exposed vulnerability found in the work of Austrian artist, Egon Schiele.
I love the layered surfaces she creates (possibly a result of her fresco studies in Italy) often using rice paper, marble dust, oil paint, inks, graphite and pen amongst other materials. The paintings draw you in like moving through a softly coloured mist of fantastical and mysterious objects and characters.
Lorraine
