Souvenir, 2014

Contemporary German artist Katharina Grosse, an abstract painter and sculptor, is best known for large, psychedelic installations that push the figurative and literal boundaries of painting. Using pigmented dirt and airbrushed acrylic paint, Grosse adheres to no canvas save the natural or man-made architecture above, below, and around her. The viewer, too, is meant to be absorbed into the piece rather than merely seeing it from a distance. Like the spirit behind their creation, Grosse's works convey a plethora of emotion, vibrancy, and movement. Before acquiring her current fame, Grosse studied for eight years at two German art academies, one of which now employs her as a professor. Influenced by fresco, en plein air painting, Abstract Expressionism, and graffiti art, she gained attention in the mid 1990's with her unconventional Color Field paintings, which were intentionally dirty and imperfect. She became known for her use of bold color rather than flawless brushwork to suggest form. As her ideas and talent grew in magnitude, so did her pieces. She upgraded from a brush on canvas to a broom on large sheets of paper and eventually to her signature industrial airbrush that suited her broad brushstrokes and imagination. In May 2014 in Philadelphia, Grosse completed a massive project entitled psychylustro, meant to be seen along the railway corridor by the thousands of passengers that ride the train. Bright swaths of color decorate passing features: massive orange-on-white streaks on an old warehouse, lime green smears on transportation infrastructures, and even a blanket of fuchsia over a young patch of trees and vegetation. Like most of her large installations, psychylustro is meant to erode and change over time. (Artist website)