Karin Beyens

°1959 – lives and works in Merksplas (BE) After completing her master education Free Graphics and Drawings at St. Lukas in Brussels, Karin specialized in the techniques of intiglio, relief printing and lithography. The aim of these advanced experiments was not so much to master them perfectly, but rather to enter the quest of the technique wich allowed her to better express herself. This would be the drypoint-technique. As a base for her printing, Karin does not use the conventional zinc or copper basis. Instead she inventively made polyester (foil) her base material. Eventually, the graphic arts are not a purpose by itself, but rather a method to come to other insights. Through the technique of the collage and drypoint etch, her work has evolved to geometric abstraction over the last couple of years. Her recent work consists of reduced, monochrome painted lines and planes. These are applied to the reflective, transparant polyester foil with wide brush strokes in acrylic paint where only the power or the coloured plane prevail. Form, colour, texture and the material itself are researched on a formalistic method. It is an artistic quest with many intermediate steps, before finally reaching the end result. This makes a continuous cycle of composing, decomposing and restarting. The collages, objects and paintings are created in series. The end goal in her two-and three-dimensional work is to reach an absolute, pictoral balance and a perfect homogenity of the constituent components. Deprived of a frame, with an open structure in interaction with the space. The works are what they are and the viewer needs to observe.