Alexandra De Kempf

Alexandra de Kempf was born in Venezuela. She is an architect and a pedagogue in visual Arts and Design. As a young ceramicist, she buried her hands in clay (stoneware, porcelain, terracotta) and it stuck. The training in ceramics taught her to form the material with her hands and to bear the thrill of heating the clay. Ever since, she couldn’t keep her hands “clean”.

When she is working with her chosen materials, she feels deep joy and satisfaction. She always has to form and create in order to change materials and to experience them. She splits the materials into their different aspects of appearance and meaning, which represents a very important part of her work.
Fission and breakage result in new constellations and perspectives. The process of destruction includes the potential for renewal. This ambivalent situation between destruction and creation can be seen in de Kempf’s sculptures and paintings. They use a symbolic form of language as well as the language of reality. Therefore, her work shifts between fantasy and everyday life.

The power which she gives to her figures makes them the true protagonists in her work. Feeling and movement are overlaying without intermission and their gestures create an exceptional and rich impression. The material (stoneware, wire, paper, paint) converts into something vivid that tells its own story. In her figures and in her collages, the protagonists move carefully but with passion.

Alexandra’s art convolutes a diversity of aspects which are seen rarely. Especially European and Indian influences feature prominently in her work. This melange is a constantly morphing process, coming from a Latin-American artist who lives in Germany.