Katharina Arndt
About
Katharina Arndt is a contemporary artist from Germany who lives and works between Berlin and Barcelona. She studied Fine Arts at Braunschweig school of art and later on obtained her Master of Fine Arts by John Armleder.
She does this through artificial mediums such as PVC film, lacquer paper and Plexiglas with glossy acrylic paint and lacquer markers, using glossy texture to represent our plastic and materialistic culture. The focus of Arndt’s practice is the observation of digital communication and the portrayal of mass consumption in the digital age. Her cartoon figures are a reflection on how we express ourselves in the digital arena and how we are becoming ever obsessed with the digital world whilst losing ourselves in the physical. Fast, reduced, almost childlike, motifs and medium ironize the contemporary mass consumerist aesthetic of a decadent, abundant society in picturing her everyday life.
Many paintings with beach references, sunburns, and even Spanish brands of drinks like beer cans or juices can see the influence of Barclona on Arndt. She also thinks clothes and accessories give a perfect impression of the spirit of the age we are living in. The stark contrast between reality and fantasy in her artworks reflect the artist’s livelihood in her young age in the East side of Germany, back when there wasn’t any food in supermarkets. She is deeply perplexed by the absurdity of our modern day-to-day activities and behaviors, and adopts a seemingly childish way of painting as an attempt to step back and look at things as they genuinely are.
Works
