Birgit Huttemann-Holz

Artist Statement

Wax and pigments have been the consistent medium in my paintings. Encaustic tends to be very visceral, luminous, and is all about depth.

It is important to me to work with forceful tools: fire and razorblades, to be able to attack my paintings, to challenge the image, battling destruction and bravery. I have to be able to change and move with the figure or the landscape, in order to find new shapes and horizons, to get lost and found and to give myself over to the bigger than me.

2012 The series that I am working on are:

Arab Spring:

Hope and despair are inevitably linked in the up rise of the Arab nations. The ruthless violence in Syria especially against children and women leaves me speechless, but initiates the urge to paint the unspeakable. Art becomes a translator, a vehicle of the impossible, but points beyond limitations. How do we process what we cannot express any more?

Aeon:

I am always thankful for beauty. I am a sucker for beauty.

BUT, I am well aware that those are fleeting moments that need to be cherished and treasured.

In my Aeon series I take it a step further. This work is about the deception of beauty.

The most sublime is also the moment of total destruction, catastrophe and death.

As for me:

Art is the most beautiful deception of all.

Birgit Huttemann-Holz

CV/BIO

In the studio of her uncle Werner Holz, an outstanding German artist, Birgit Huttemann-Holz was exposed to Imaginary Realism/Phantastische Malerei from early age on. Intrigued by the contradictions of the human psyche she first started to write poetry.

While working as a Physical Therapist, she went to study literature, philosophy and media science, at the University of Karlsruhe and Philipps-University, Marburg, Germany.

A sudden move to the US triggered an end to her writings. A universal language was needed- a visual form that moved her words beyond the limitations of translation and geography. It wasn't long before she discovered the ancient Greek painting technique called encaustic.

Huttemann –Holz has exhibited in London, Istanbul, Karlsruhe, New York, Santa Fe, Detroit.

She was awarded finalist of the International Portrait Competition, Society for Art of the Imagination (2011), Invitation to the Biennale Florence (2011) and won multiple awards nationwide.

Birgit Huttemann-Holz lives and works in Detroit .

Publications:

• Contemporary Painters, Schiffer Publishing, ISBN 9780764341083, 2012
• Man as Object: Reversing the Gaze, SOMArts Cultural Center, Catalogue 2011
• Interview with Birgit Huttemann- Holz, Feb.2011, Neoconartist blogspot.com, 2011
• Musetouch, Feb 2011, featured artist, online fine art magazine, 2011
• Whoople, Feb 2011, artist interview, fine art blog, 2011
• Collaboration for fine art set decor with Next Films, Inc. of New York City, NY, 2010
• Cover Art for: I broke up with my Haiku, Craig Boehman, and ISBN 10: 1450545491, 2010
• "Who is who 2010", Domain Verlag, Leipzig , Germany, ISBN 978-3-9813474-1-8, 2010
• "Worldartfoundation Masters", Umbrella Publishing, Orange County, CA, 2009

TV Appearances:

• "Art and Design", Birgit Huttemann- Holz, WMTV5, Nov.19 and 22, 2009
• "The John Proust Show ", Birgit Huttemann- Holz& Bonnie Delsener, GPAC, WMTV5, Oct.6, 2009