"A
feeling of immensity that lets the mind travel"
Karine
Lahannier invites us to discover a whole
universe of colors that she has always carried with her. From learning
calligraphy to transposing the art of the stroke onto canvas, the artist has
acquired a culture of movement and a mastery of the fusion of nuances, which
today enable her to combine shapes and colors that come to life in her
canvases. She enjoys playing with their intensity and luminosity. Glass powder
or sand, for texture, and pure pigments are harmoniously combined with strong
colors, such as soothing blue, amber or energizing red. As the light changes,
the compositions change, making the invisible visible and the visible
invisible, leaving you free to linger indefinitely. Ephemeral yet inexhaustible
scents of her memories, promises of a future paradise.
Karine
chooses to sign her paintings on the back, so as not to disrupt the harmony of
lines and colors, and to allow the viewer to let his or her thoughts travel
beyond the confines of the frame. Lose yourself in her universe, where spirit
and nature, the hidden and the revealed, the moving and the fixed, are
reconciled.
Who
knows, perhaps you'll come to realize that you are the beating heart of matter.
Artist description
Karine has been drawing since childhood. She
reproduces flowers with a precise, realistic, almost naturalistic line, in the
spirit of botanical book illustrations. Later, Karine developed a passion for
calligraphy. She observes and projects herself into the gesture and movement
that lead to the creation of a work. The famous Yin-Yun of the Chinese, that
decisive moment when the brush, the artist's spirit, meets the ink, virtual
beauty waiting to be objectified, to give birth to a work of art. Calligraphy
naturally led her to learn Oriental languages, particularly Chinese. Immersing
herself in this very different culture enriches her perception of the world.
Karine is also sensitive to the light of the elements that surround her and the
light that emanates from a work of art. Depending on the light source, natural
or artificial, under which a painting is viewed, its inner light will emerge
differently. Karine likes to think that this keeps the material alive!
My
inspiration
My
sources of inspiration are manifold. I'm moved by the beauty of untouched
territories such as Iceland or the wild Atlantic. I'm also moved by the magic
of the relief and reflections of precious stones and other minerals. What I
particularly like are the dualities or complementarities of the elements: a
raging sea under a sky pierced by intense light, which is also a way of seeing
the world.
What
thrills me is the combination of colors, those I perceive and those I compose.
Their intensities, transparencies and materials. I love it when all the
sensations I feel come to life on my canvases. Other fundamental references for
me are the works of Turner, Soulages, Rothko or the Chinese artist Zao Wou-Ki,
whose work I particularly admire. My painting is abstract, because I believe we
need to go beyond mere representation if we are to reveal the spirit of the
universe, with all its invisible aspects.
My
preferred techniques
I use
acrylics mixed with other components to give texture to my canvases: glass
powder to obtain relief and depth, pigments that I apply in certain areas to
create contrasts. I also work with a knife to create other types of relief,
always striving towards the notion of a living work of art.
My
ideal painting environment
I
paint alone in my studio in Paris or in the countryside, listening to music.
The studio atmosphere is both soothing and full of energy. I paint as if in a
choreographed movement. I concentrate all my energy on the canvas, maintaining
a hyperactive, almost frenetic rhythm. This dynamic carries me forward and is
reflected in my canvases in a tempo combining power and serenity.
Main Exhibitions
- Grand
salon d’Art Contemporain, Paris Bastille, 2012
-Hôtel Fairmont, « Puzzle
Party » du Groupe Pochet, Monaco, 2016-Espace Landowski, Boulogne, 2016 -Salon National des Beaux-Arts, Paris
Carrousel du Louvre, 2018 -Galerie Sonia Monti, Paris, 2019-Artsper, 2019/2020-Adhérente à la Fondation Taylor, Paris,
depuis 2022-Salon des peintres & sculpteurs
Dieppois, Musée Michel Ciry, Varengeville-Sur-Mer, 2022-Galerie Maitre Albert, Paris, 2022-Biennale du Noir & Blanc, Musée
Michel Ciry, Varengeville-Sur-Mer, 2023-Mairie du 17ème,
Paris, Juillet & Août 2023
-Exposition privée dans un appartement
parisien, Décembre 2023