Independent artist

Karin Vermeer is an independent artist who has lived and worked in Rotterdam since 2002. She was born in Tilburg in 1970, where she went to Fashion school until accepted at the Willem the Kooning Academie in Rotterdam 1990 and got her degree in Illustration in 1994. After working as a freelance Illustrator and Decorator for a couple of years, it was time to start as an independent artist creating paintings and murals. Fashion and female portraits have always been her main interest, ever when she was a little girl, constantly looking into Fashion glossy’s. She was fascinated by the way these beautiful models were portraited but also found it disturbing how unrealistic it was the way these pictures were manipulated. That is what started her interest in mixing up photographs digitally and manually.

My works are created by digitally combining and editing photographs and paintings into new, original works of art. My favorite subject is the female face. I specialize in portraits created by overlaying and blending different photographs of different people to create unique, non-existing persons. Besides that, I also take pictures of models in my studio and create a new image mixed with old walls, grunge posters, and other exciting elements. When the digital part is ready, I print the image and start painting over it. I create thick structures and a lot of layers of paint and gel over them. In this way, I try to make the digital image tangible again. My work is not about explanation and concept. It is a game to me about triggering the senses. I start with no idea in general, but by looking at pictures that interest me and mixing them, a new image slowly evolves.

All works are created on request in any size of preference.

I mix prints, paint,  gel medium, and a math/gloss coating with most of these works. The paintings are created by hand, individually a bit different in editions of max. 25 pieces.

Education

• 1983-1987 IVKO MAVO Tilburg
• 1987- 1990 MDGO-MK Tilburg Fashionschool
• 1990-1994 Willem de Kooning academie Rotterdam Fashion, illustratie
• 2000-2014 short educations: Photoshop, Illustrator, Quarkxpress, Flash
• 2016 Studio and model fotografie

Solo exhibitions

• 2019 exibition Galerie 45 and New Art podium Heerlen.
• 2015/16/17/19/20 Open Studio’s Borgerstraat Paralel to Art Rotterdam, Netherlands
• 2014 Udo Wagner / Udo Wagner -Essen, Germany
• 2016 Layers / The Arts -s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands
• 2013 Aquartist / Aquartist -Amsterdam, Netherlands
• 2002 Museum Night / label DVDV -Rotterdam, Netherlands
• 1992 Rotown Rotterdam / Rotown -Rotterdam, Netherlands
• 1992 Bla Bla Rotterdam / Bla Bla -Rotterdam, Netherlands

Group exhibitions

Press & Media