Karin Hanssen

Karin Hanssen is a contemporary Belgian painter and the founder of the online database "Contemporary Women Artists in Belgium."

Biography of Karin Hanssen

Karin Hanssen was born in 1960 in Antwerp. She pursued her artistic education at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp, with a focus on painting. In 1993, she furthered her studies at the National Higher Institute of Fine Arts, Antwerp. She also participated in a workshop led by Fortuyn/O'Brien at the Biennial of European Art Academies in 1993 in Maastricht. The artist continues to reside and work in her hometown of Antwerp.

Throughout her artistic career, Karin Hanssen has extensively exhibited in renowned galleries and institutions worldwide. Notable solo exhibitions include "Everything Now - Variations on Desire" at Sofie Van de Velde Gallery in Antwerp (2021), "Returning the Gaze" at De Garage Mechelen in Belgium (2019), "A Room of One’s Own" at Roberto Polo Gallery in Brussels (2014), "The Borrowed Gaze/Variations GTB" in Canberra, Australia (2012), "NOW = The Time" at Kunstverein Ahlen in Germany (2010), among many others.

Karin Hanssen is recognized as one of the enduring female painters who emerged in the early 1990s as part of the new Flemish painting scene.

Karin Hanssen's Art Style

Karin Hanssen primarily works with oil on canvas. Her art derives inspiration from diverse sources, encompassing art history, literature, sociology, and public photographic archives from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Her retrospective approach enables her to delve into social relations, gender constructions, and the voyeuristic gaze that permeates both the past and present. Through her paintings, Hanssen portrays scenes of human interaction unfolding in private and public spaces, inviting viewers to ponder the intricacies of the human experience.

Hanssen's paintings and drawings are rich with intricately woven layers of philosophical and visual significance, inviting extended contemplation. She consistently explores themes of temporal disorientation, social semiotics, feminism, the "Rückenfigur," the (absent) gaze, and "The Borrowed Gaze."

Often, her artworks center on the gendered gaze, the portrayal of women, and the assigned roles of men and women in period advertisements, films, and photographs.