Petra von Kazinyan, who recently became an artshortlister, was very kind to open the doors of her studio in Vienna. Immersion in her world between dream and reality.
Hello Petra, when and how did you start painting?
Since my early childhood, I had the desire to transform my life into art. I was never not painting or drawing. When I was six years old, I started to sign my works; the first one I ever signed was a small landscape painting, a forest scene. Funnily I wrote my age, not my name in the right bottom corner...
The young Petra drawing
To me, being creative is just something that has always been there and can’t be separated from my inner self. Like Christo once said: When you’re an artist, you’re always an artist, there’s not one second in your life when you’re not an artist.
You live in Vienna, tell us about this city? What does it mean to you?
Vienna has always been a city with great friction potential for artists - its cultural heritage is impressive and the coexistence of historic and contemporary architecture is visually striking, but it‘s also a quite conservative city, not as vibrant and open-minded as comparable capitals.
Your art oscillates between abstraction and figuration, why?
Over the years, I turned from realism to pure abstraction, then things started to get more figurative again.
Petra von Kazinyan in front of Ego XII (Omnia aut nihil)
To me, figuration and abstraction complement each other; due to their reciprocal relationship, one results from the other, it’s an eternal cycle.
Do you have routines or rituals when you are in your studio?
When I enter my studio and close the door behind me, I leave everyday life outside; it’s always a moment of great relief and pure freedom.
Then I‘ll sit down in front of the canvas for quite some time, taking my time to get into the right mood. Music also plays an important role; every painting has its own soundtrack.
Music is important in your creative process, what do you usually listen to?
I listen to any kind of music that moves me in a certain way, from Stromae to Vivaldi; I also have a soft spot for French chansons and soundtracks of movies I love.