Carolin Rechberg
Biography
"Alerting the senses through creating, is an opportunity to ground in the present moment. Creating provides a place to simply be, to breathe, to feel, to find rest in the now. It is a means to communicate, with the is-ness of being, with being in presence. The art process is a dialogue, a dance of energy and matter, guided by intuitive, intentional and informed gesture. The artworks created become their own entities, embodying the knowledge of their own material, the experience which shaped them, to continue to exchange, gather and transform information in the encounter with me, you, and the environment. The act of creating is the art and, the art process, the artwork, is the vehicle to the awareness emanating from the communion with art.”
Carolin Rechberg, is an interdisciplinary artist, who places value in the multi-sensory experience and understanding brought forth in the process of creating. Rechberg offers unique artworks for sale and commissions of art, for commercial, private or public space.
After completing her primary education with focus in Art and Design at the Munich International School (IB), she received her formal training at the California College of the Arts (BFA), the San Francisco Art Institute (MFA), and in the Art and Art Education Department at Teachers College, Columbia University (EdM). As a Teaching Assistant Rechberg instructed Drawing and Painting, at the San Francisco Art Institute, and Etching, Lithography, Relief printing and Silkscreen, at TC, Columbia University. At Teachers College (TC) she also managed the printmaking studios and facilitated all printmaking courses.
Carolin Rechberg has exhibited in Solo and Group Exhibitions, in America, Asia and Europe. She has received awards, multiple residencies and has been published in international art publications. Recently she returned to Europe to establish an art studio close to Murnau am Staffelsee in Bavaria.
What’s your background?
I was born in the Bavarian foothills and grew up around and in the mountains of the Alps. But I also travelled a lot through Europe, America, and some of Africa, with my family and lived in Florence for a year. I was exposed to varying landscapes and cultures, but deep entrenched in the romantic nature stemming from the idyllic and majestic countryside and rural culture of southern Bavaria.
I grew up creating, learning through making, observing and playing through the Montessori-school system and later in the International Baccalaureate. While I always crafted in ways, the experience of losing my sight through an accident as 12-year-old, deeply imprinted on me. While acting, music and singing at first drew my interest to pursue professionally, I continued utilizing art and craft as a means to digest, to come to terms with life, root in existence, to foster joy and deal with the regular challenges of life.
It became a ventil, a language, and a means to express and ‘feel at peace’ but it also helped to create an inner wellbeing and tranquility. It has ever since come from a place of meditation, of allowing to simply feel everything, and see the work become and transform in front of you. Much as one grows moment by moment as oneself. I see the experiences and the wondrous insights gained in art making, as wisdom, bestowed through the mostly solitude practice of creating, but encompassed in the sheer force of life existence itself. Art is a celebration of it, and reignites with each work created, especially with each process experienced. I became to know the world through process of artmaking, in return it teaches me how to be and observe, be with the world and myself. This I learned at an early age.
Vivid travels through southeast Asia, challenges met in my youth, and near to death experiences woke me up early, to truly value the preciousness of life. Therefore, I chose to pursue my passion, which has turned from a whisper to an echoing call, which I protect from being silenced.
To justify the life as an artist and through the thirst to learn I pursued my art education. After an IB with distinction in Art and Design at the Munich International School, I continued my education at the California College of the Arts with an Interdisciplinary Bachelor of Art, allowing myself early to create work cyclically in varying mediums. Afterwards I attended the San Francisco Art Institute and attained a Master in Painting and Drawing, while continuing my interdisciplinary work. Additionally, I expanded on my interest of teaching and assisted Jeremy Morgan for one year in teaching college level Drawing and Painting. While initially I would have liked to stay in San Francisco at the time, to simply expand on the connections, exhibitions and community I had fostered, the expiration of my visa catapulted me back to Germany. There I learned that I needed further pedagogical knowledge and accreditation to possibly teach art. Therefore I strengthened my second leg as an art educator, through a Master of Art and Art Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. There I also managed the printmaking studio and assisted Dr Mahbobe Ghods in teaching Etching, Lithography, Relief Print and Silkscreen. While gaining more experience as an art educator, gathering insights through process and expanding my own body of artwork, I realized I needed to return to the path of simply being an artist and creating artwork. I did through three degrees in art gather the qualifications to be an educated artist in in the studio arts and art educator. But ultimately after experiencing the states for 15 years, my path has returned me now to the region and country of my origin. To gather, to reflect, document all my past work, to share it and to create more.
What does it mean to you to win the Collectors Art Prize?
It fills me with joy for my work to be recognized and valued for what it is and what it is still emerging into. I will be curious to, over time experience the resulting resonance, audience and opportunities, to share and create more work. I do hope it is a further keystone to simply be supported in the creation of more work. But mainly it inspires, and it encourages, that the persistent pursuit of the life as an artist, the artworks which spring from within me, find appreciation and acknowledgement. I feel joy, I am humbled and hopeful. But mainly simply grateful that my art, the inner calling to create, a need to commune with existence through art making, is valued and well received from those who perceive it.
What do you think is the role of art in the world today?
A vessel to commune. A healer. A messenger. A transformer. A sage. A wake-up call! Always a reflection of the state of consciousness of the artist, but also of the collective consciousness and the culture. It is a vehicle to be and to become aware of the individual and communcal presence, the environment and hopefully of nature. Therefore, art is an entry point to, an accentuator of, a call to, more aware states of presence, and hopefully a contribution to igniting a more considerate and sensitive way of being in communion with existence, through and beyond art.
What would it be if you could change one thing about the art world?
That art would be mainly chosen again for merit and quality, the effect of the work itself taking president over everything else, rather than as contemporarily often based on identity, race or sexual orientation. That curation of the art, Artists, curators, academia, the museums should again become focused on enlightenment, not fashion, power, popularity, fame, monetary or social gain through personal or political agendas.
What are your most significant professional achievements?
In the end, my professional achievement is for my work to resonate and find interest of individuals and organizations just through its existence, and the merit within it.
But I have had the opportunity to exhibit in Europe, Asia and America. Have been in internationally published art publications and in magazines such as Vogue, House and Garden, Wired Magazine. My work has been exhibited in the underground in Hong Kong Central Station. I assisted and was part of a printmaking workshop organized by the Making and Knowing Project, aligned with my work and the importance of learning through craft and art making.
I received scholarships for my artwork and academic achievements, and individual opportunities to further my education and share my work. I was selected as 1 of 15 students nationally in America to participate in the AICAD Mobility program. I was commissioned for the 40thAnniversary Art slant Exhibition at Fort Mason, San Francisco. I got to show my work on the billboard in Time Square. I exhibited in Shanghai at the National Chinese Cultural Exhibition. I received the opportunity to create art at the Lucid Art Foundation. I managed the Printmaking Studio at Teachers College, specializing in teaching printmaking techniques, in the very room Georgia O’Keefe created. I participated and assisted at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in the exhibition of The Virtual and the Real.
What do you wish to tell viewers about your work that might not come out explicitly? What do you hope to inspire with your artwork?
At this time, I am sharing photography as one of the 1st times, it communicates the intimacy with which I observe, the importance of movement and a full body experience, even with a camera. In my generally abstract work, arrested moments, unique entities emerge, and a freedom of expression reigns. I chose to give myself the liberty of creating environments, imagery which is inspired by how I encounter nature, the world around me, and encourage others to encounter the world at large. With vivid senses and in acute feeling. But my until now secret body of photography is a key to how my eyes see. And as we each encounter, experience and interpret works of art uniquely to oneself, or as designed, the photographs depicted here, are a celebration of the preciousness of nature in all its wisdom it teaches us. The witnessing nature’s majestic and fleeting moments, informs and is underlying in the practice and natural essence of my artwork.
What advice would you give to the upcoming generation of artists?
Pursue Art as a way to see, to perceive, to be in and with life. Be genuine with your work, authentic to yourself, learn to listen and don’t seek your own work outside, but call upon it from within. In an exploration with your soul in dialogue with life, nature, your time of experience, in consideration of the was and what energy, presence and aesthetic you want to contribute to the ‘will be’. Make honest art. Create form a place of integrity, from within you, not in focus on the exterior world. Do not cater what the world other people expect, listen to your instincts and soul, let that guide you in the creation of your work and your life.
Meditate on making and allow yourself the exploration in your craft. Your art process is your laboratory and will gift you discoveries transferable to wisdoms in all areas of life and living.
Don’t compete with expectations of others and your own. Be malleable and flexible to shift gears to keep on the path of pursuing your artwork and genuine work coming from a higher place of merit. Be a beautiful unique contribution with your work and presence. Honor the artistic ancestors but originate from a place of your authentic self. Acknowledge others works and affinities but truly create your own aesthetic marks. That will create the greatest resonance.
Understanding comes with time as we see the unforeseen path unfold. Trust your senses and school them! They will be your greatest and most reliant guide in the cascades of life, in challenges, trials and tribulations, art can bring you wisdom and peace.
Stay humble!
Create a life for yourself where you won’t have to fear that you won’t get to create dependent on others. The evolution of yourself and your work takes time. Be patient and observe your own practice as a ritual, a gift, and opportunity to give.
In what direction would you like to see your career go in the next five years?
I would welcome residencies, exhibitions and artistic collaborations across sectors and beyond the fine art realm, with individuals, businesses and institutions, to aestheticize the world and create artwork to transfer into textile designs, fashion, pottery lines, furniture lines, installations, for private public places, in indoor and outdoor settings. I would like to continue to grow and sell my work to an audience which delights by accenting and activating their spaces with my work.
In honesty it can go in all those directions, I will simply keep creating and see where the journey leads. Meanwhile I will continue to build my art ‘studio C’, document and publish 15 years of past work and create more, create large- and small-scale paintings, prints and sculptures. I would cherish to discover different geographies of the world, in combination with artist residencies, to further create in response and study art, life, nature, people, our world.
Country Germany
Website https://www.carolinrechberg.com
