Biography
“Color is a power which directly influences the soul.”
Wassily Kandinsky
Short Biography
The love of art and the need to express myself through colours and compositions have always accompanied me. Photographs, nature drawings, nude and portrait painting developed while training as a textile and design engineer have helped me develop a handwriting that is as precise artistically as it is sound on an artisanal level. Like many artists of the 20th and 21st century, I have turned from figurative painting first to collage and then to abstraction.
I reduce to the essential: shapes and the substance of colours. My means of expression are surface structures and textures, strong contrasts, at times expressive colour choices and play with colour surfaces that partly conceal, partly reveal what lies beneath. In order for the complexity and optical depth of the paintings to become perceptible, parts of the canvas remain open. To apply layers, I use paintbrushes and palette knives, oil crayons, pencil and pigments.
Travelling is my source of inspiration: I am guided by memories of a place’s colours, its nature, particular patterns of light and shadow. My artistic practice is a painted response to the disrespect of the environment and the fast pace of the increasingly digitalized world; an expression of my desire that we develop respect for the surrounding world and that we recognize the urgency of a sustainable protection of nature. The paintings’ titles refer to those sources of inspiration, subject areas and concerns. More importantly, though, my colour worlds are meant to invite viewers to go on a sensuous journey of discovery and to inspire thoughts and ideas of their own.
Sonja Kalb, 2021
Current & Upcoming
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OpenArtCode Barcelona
May 9 – May 23, 2024
Thursday, Opening May 9
Real Círculo Artístico de Barcelona
Carrer dels Arcs 5
08002 Barcelona
ES
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Beyond Landscape
Xianwei Zhu, Christoph Pöggeler, Sonja Kalb
7 March – 6 April 2024
Opening on 8 March 2024, 18:00
Galerie Kellermann
Heinrich-Heine-Allee 12
40212 Düsseldorf
DE
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LA Art Show
14 – 18 Februar 2024
Arte Globale Gallery
Booth 817
LA Convention Center, West Hall
1201 S Figueroa St
Los Angeles, CA 90015
US
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Boundless Beauty
14–22 January 2024
Opening on Saturday, 13 January 2024, 17:30
Due uno Due Spazio Espositivo
Via Galliera, 2
40121 Bologna BO
IT