We recently connected with Karina Matheus and have shared our conversation below.

Karina, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

Karina, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a Venezuelan-American artist and writer. I started my art practice since I was 7 years old when I discovered Kandinsky and his abstractionism. Once that I finished the High School, I started my studies in arts, music, and dance in renowned academies in my hometown Caracas (Venezuela). I hold a BA in Communications & Filmmaking, a Postgrad in Integrated Marketing Communications, and MA in Spanish Creative Writing.

My art has been featured in curated exhibitions in the context of the 57th, 58th, 59th and 60th Venice Biennale in Italy, as well as included in the prestigious Luciano Benetton Collection. I have been participated in International Art Fairs like Scope NYC, AAF London, AAF NYC, Parallax AF London, Pinta Miami, Art Boca Raton, Art Concept Miami Art Week, Art Palm Beach International, among others. My paintings have been exhibited also in museums, galleries and curated spaces in prominent art hubs such as London, Bristol, Windsor, New York, Madrid, Panama, Costa Rica, Caracas, Miami, and Wynwood, the renowned Art District in South Florida.

In the US, I developed art projects for South Florida community under the platform BEART and I have been recognized for the City of Doral, City of Miami, Venezuelan American Chamber of Commerce, Ana G. Mendez University, among others, for promoting the cultural activities in Miami.

In UK, I have been art facilitator, working on the wellbeing of the Surrey community, elderly and vulnerable (Dementia, Alzheimer, Parkinson, MS) people and gladly I have been recognized as well for this work.

As writer, I published my stories in compilations by Spanish editorial houses in the United States and digital literary magazines in Spain. I am current collaborator in the London Spanish Book & Zine Fair with the purpose to promote the Spanish literature as a part of the cultural heritage in the UK.

My main motivations are the concept of the soul and the power of the color. When I paint, I immerse myself in deeply meditation state to explore the worlds of the abstraction. I use the movement of my own body to create the brushstrokes, creating rhythm and textures in each piece. I do mainly abstract paintings, and I create collage, installations, photography, video art, and new media (Augmented Reality, Holograms).

About inspiration, it has been my maternal grandmother who always has been with me, sharing her light, wisdom, and love on every step in my life.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Even when I showed my desires to be an artist when I was kid, my family were worried about my future as an artist woman. They love me so much but they refused to support my dream to move to London and study art. I earned a scholarship but I was just 15 years old at the time that I finished the secondary school and I was admitted in a wonderful university for Communications Studies in my hometown. So, I stayed and I took this option but I enrolled in an art academy and music school simultaneously without the knowledge of my family. Later, I studied photography and literature.

I felt all the time as a creative mind but growing up with the beliefs “being an artist is being starving” and “women can’t be an artist because they will end under the control of their husband’s pocket”, made me insecure and unhappy. I followed the corporate marketing path until I moved to the US. Step by step, I started to be involved in the Latin American art scene in Miami just as promoter and producer. My artistic side was still stuck behind my fears, exhibiting sometimes with pseudonym. The day when my grandmother, my greatest inspiration, passed away something changed inside me and the message that I got was “always be truly yourself”. One month later, I had my first exhibition with a whole abstract expressionism series.

Always be truly yourself.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

I met many people that undervalue the art and rejecting the abstractionism. In these cases, if I have the opportunity, I explain the importance of the contemplation as viewer and no analyze as critic. I believe that if we have two hemispheres in our brain, both work and we can use them. But beyond to say the creativity is in one of them, actually it involves more areas and mechanisms of the brain, we can develop it in a kind of appreciation level at least.

Maybe some people think that they can’t be creative or can’t understand the art but if they often visit art spaces (galleries, museums), enjoy music and performances, and better do any art activities, their creative potential will develop to be sensitive in front of the artistic expressions and to improve their own life even when they are not artists.

No everyone can be an artist, but anyone can do a creative hobby. Then change the spirit for good. Then understand journeys like mine.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.karinamatheus.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karinamatheusart/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karina.matheus
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karinamatheus/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/KarinaMatheus
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@KarinaMatheusArt
• Other: https://www.karinamatheus.com/the-search https://www.kunstmatrix.com/en/karina-matheus https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/karina-matheus-ar-art/id1335665776

Image Credits
Karina Matheus