BIRGITTA VOLZ – Germany – Wood printing
@birgittavolz (Instagram)
Artist statement and bio
Birgitta Volz, an artist and designer with major international recognition, can be credited with nearly 120 solo exhibitions, more than 230 group exhibitions, and work in 21 different countries. Beginning her career in 1985 as the youngest member of the Association of Professional Artists in Nuremberg, Germany, Birgitta received her BA from Würzburg College and her MA from the University of Modern Arts in Kassel. Between 1996 and 2000, she lectured at art colleges in India, Portugal, and Ghana. Drawn to India, she settled in Auroville in 2005.
Recipient of numerous international awards, fellowships, and artist residencies, Birgitta’s wood prints, bark prints and botanical prints are kept in many public and private collections.
“I work with block prints, which I take directly from the bark of living trees or other plants, as well as from natural stones and also from man made structures. Magic is unfolding, as soon as I do my printing work. My “models” gift me with different archetypes and stories, depending on their cultural environment. It seems as if the trees, stones or our environment in general record the history of their place and of its “clandestine” inhabitants. I try to unveil the inner aspect, the very soul of nature, which has been well known and venerated in most ancient cultures.
I wish to open people through the beauty of nature, which is a continuous theme in my artwork. My aim is to create a consciousness which guides the observer above mere decoration and perhaps some viewers will be able to gain access to the spiritual aspects of nature.“
“I choose some of the local stones to work with, because they seemed to me the most characteristic element in the area. Some were really calling me and exactly those manifested even some element of the local myths.”
