Born 1962 in Braunschweig, Germany, Kirsten studied sculpture at the Academy of Arts, Münster. 1990 she opened the edition-gallery “Edition Klöckner” in Düsseldorf. Here she publishes graphics and multiples inter alia from A.R. Penck, Sigmar Polke and Klaus Staeck. Besides, she offers her own multiples, paintings (as original, graphic print or postcard) and books about her artistic projects. One of her multiples, “Kompliment” (Compliment) is our Artwork of the Month of July 2017.
Kirsten’s works have been shown in many personal and group exhibitions. Moreover, her works are in several major art collections, for example in the Kunstmuseum am Ehrenhof Düsseldorf (today Museum Kunstpalast), Sammlung Falckenberg, Hamburg and the art collection of the Landesbank Baden-Württemberg.
In painting, Kirsten’s main medium are large-sized lacquered and often vivid pigmented watercolours. Since 2012 she works on her project BeuteKunst (looted art), meanwhile consisting of three parts with different sources of inspiration. Initially stimulated by a visit in the Kunstarchiv Beeskow (Art Archive Beeskow), she created paintings including elements of the pieces from the archive. For BeuteKunst II, she selected living persons to be her muses. Resulting are not portraits in the conventional sense. In 2014, the artist started her “Wunschprogramm” (programme of wishes) as third part of BeuteKunst. Friends, chance acquaintances and contacts on social networks can express their wishes. These dreams, ideas and longings find a visual expression in the thereof emerging paper works as “Wunschbilder” (wished images). Our Artwork of the Month of March 2015 is from BeuteKunst III. Another wished image, “Toleranzvirus” (Tolerance-Virus) became an award for people, who are in a particular way engaged for tolerance in our society by the association Aproto. For the year 2021, the artist released a calendar with 12 of her desired images, one for each month.
Furthermore, Kirsten worked on the series of “Emojis”, which could broaden the limited possibilities of expression used in social media. Since the beginning of November until 31st December 2020, she publishes every day one of these images in the social media. This is thought as sort of an expanded Advent calendar. The originals in watercolour and ink on paper are in format DIN A4 (29,7 cm x 21 cm). These paintings in a – for the artist – quite unusual small size are part of “Edition Klöckner”. “Gefällt mir!“ (I Like it) from this series is our Artwork of the Month of December 2020.
During the pandemic, Kirsten initiated Zoom-meetings, where artists and art enthusiasts met at times every other week. The artists presented their works and projects. Topics related to art were also discussed. With the lockdown restrictions, these meetings provided an opportunity to exchange ideas and proved very popular during this period.
The latest part of the programme of wishes is the series “10 für Bodenburg” (10 for Bodenburg) where Kirsten created paintings inspired by wishes from people from Bodenburg, who participated in a presentation of her project. Commissioned by the Foundation Kunstgebäude Schlosshof Bodenburg they will be on view in the group exhibition “Bodenburg – Kunst mit und ohne Dach” (Bodenburg – Art with and without a Roof) from 4th July until 2nd of August 2026 at the Foundation Kunstgebäude Schlosshof Bodenburg. One of these images, “Leichtigkeit” (Lightness) is our Artwork of the Month of April 2026.
Since 2002, Kirsten lives and works in Berlin.
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https://steady.page/de/wunschprogramm/posts