• Karin Hanssen

    Karin Hanssen lives and works in Antwerp. She is regarded as one of the enduring female painters who emerged in the early Nineties as part of the new Flemish painting scene.

    Hanssen's paintings and drawings are replete with meticulously constructed layers of philosophical and pictorial meanings, and reward prolonged looking. She incessantly explores the concepts of temporal disorientation, social semiotics, feminism, the 'Rückenfigur', the (absent) gaze, and 'The Borrowed Gaze'.

    For the past two decades Hanssen has worked in series. Her clearly defined cycles of work consistently expand her temporal, spatial and gendered constructions. Her paradigmatic portraits and scenarios - painted in hazy colours - are embedded in deterministic environments, ranging from domestic interiors to holiday landscapes derived from Fifties' and Sixties' magazine photography.

    Hanssen's work critically examines the complacent acceptance of modernity by confidently exposing some of its faultiness.

    Karin Hanssen (PhD) has exhibited at S.M.A.K in Ghent, the MAS Museum Antwerp, the 7th Sharjah Biennial (UAE), the 2nd YokohamaTriennial (Japan), TAFA gallery, Tianjin, (China), Chelsea Art Museum, New York (USA), Kunstverein Ahlen, (Germany), New Art Gallery Walsall (UK), The Salzburger Kunstverein (Austria) and Canberra Contemporary Art Space, (Australia). Her work is in public and private collections worldwide. Selected Publications include: 'The Borrowed Gaze', Charlotte Mullins (Lannoo, 2014),'The Borrowed Gaze/Variations GTB' (MER, 2012) Johan Pas, Daniela Hammer-Tugendhat, Kurt Vanhoutte, 'The Thrill of It All' (MER, 2010) Philippe Van Cauteren, Gregory Salzman, David Broker, Now=The Time, (Roma publication 83-11, 2010) Philippe Van Cauteren and Karin Hanssen and 'Modern Living' (Objectif_Exhibitions, 2004) Alain de Botton, Gregory Salzman.

    Since 2018 Karin Hanssen collaborates with Sofie Van de Velde Gallery and Plus-One Gallery.
    http://sofievandevelde.be/
    https://plus-one.be/
    www.karin-hanssen.be