Karla Woisnitza (born 16 August 1952) is a German artist.

Life

Woisnitza was born in

Rüdersdorf Rüdersdorf is a municipality in the district Märkisch-Oderland, in Brandenburg, Germany, near Berlin. It is served by the Schöneiche bei Berlin tramway which runs from Rüdersdorf through Schöneiche to Berlin-Friedrichshagen station on the B ...

. Before she went to art school, she took part in a drawing group in her hometown led by the artist Erika Stürmer-Alex. She studied set design from 1973 to 1979 at the

Dresden Academy of Fine Arts The Dresden Academy of Fine Arts (German ''Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden''), often abbreviated HfBK Dresden or simply HfBK, is a vocational university of visual arts located in Dresden, Germany. The present institution is the product o ...

. In her core curriculum, she studied with Günter Hornig, who was an inspiration to a number of influential performance artists in East Germany and who gave his students room for creative experimentation despite the conservative climate of the academy. During her studies, Woisnitza brought together women artists and founded loose networks. These included her fellow students and upcoming artists like Christine Schlegel, Marie-Luise Bauerschmidt, Sabine Gumnitz, Monika Hanske, Cornelia Schleime, Angela Schumann. They realized a number of collective events together. These informal performances involved body actions, such as ''Face Painting Action (Gesichts-malaktion'', 1978–1979). In 1991, Woisnitza received a diploma in painting and graphic design from the Academy. In 1992, she received the from the . From 1993 to 1995, she painted seven large

fresco Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...

es for the Virchow-Klinikum campus of the

Charité The Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (Charité – Berlin University of Medicine) is one of Europe's largest university hospitals, affiliated with Humboldt University and Free University Berlin. With numerous Collaborative Research Cen ...

hospital in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

. In 1994, Woisnitza received the

Käthe Kollwitz Prize The Käthe Kollwitz Prize (german: Käthe-Kollwitz-Preis) is a German art award named after artist Käthe Kollwitz. Established in 1960 by the then-Academy of Arts of the German Democratic Republic (nowadays the Academy of Arts, Berlin), the pri ...

from the

Berlin Academy of Arts The Academy of Arts (german: Akademie der Künste) is a state arts institution in Berlin, Germany. The task of the Academy is to promote art, as well as to advise and support the states of Germany. The Academy's predecessor organization was fo ...

. In 2002, she created a fresco for the church hall of the Evangelical church in Rüdersdorf. Woisnitza was encouraged by two artist/teachers, Gunther Hornig and Erika Sturmer-Alex to do non-conformist conceptual art. She developed "an artistic activation of the body in the interest of female self-assurance and empowerment" and would call "into question traditional representations of femininity as well as the basic difference between internal and external perception."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Woisnitza, Karla 1952 births Living people German women painters Fresco painters German printmakers Women book artists German performance artists People from Rüdersdorf 21st-century German women artists