Charlotte Engelhaart

Charlotte Engelhaarts is best known as a painter, but her work also includes video

installation. She studied at The National Academy of Fine Art in Bergen Norway from

1996-2001 and is a member of several artist organizations: NBK, UKS and LNM. Her

works have been exhibited in numerous galleries and museums in Norway as well as in

Europe and belong to numerous public, corporate and private collections. Engelhaart lives

and work at Nesodden, just outside of Oslo

ARTIST STATEMENT

My work is oriented towards how the act of paint can reveal something about human

identity, nature and history. In that both of my parents were orphans and grew up without

family, I found myself early on in my life looking for roots and the sense of belonging. The

secrets around my unknown relatives, their lives and persona made me look for stories

behind the random faces staring at me from photographs. The human gaze became my

inspiration and a way into representative painting.

My identity as a painter is located between figuration and abstraction. The human

expression in dialogue with the complexity of a painted surface has been a conceptual

cornerstone for most of my career as an artist. The motifs in my pantings are taken from

different sources, such as private family albums, newspapers, films or the internet.

When the mystery of a human image merges with the abstract poetry of painting, new and

untold stories arise beyond the visible surface. In the context of our contemporary mass

communication my commitment to the visual language of paint serves for me as a way to

silence the mind and comprehend questions about life and humanity. The viewer does nor

only perceive an immediate visual experience, but is also left to process the complexity of

mankind in a frozen moment in time.

I think of the way I work as a love affair, a place fed from human nature, unfolded by paint.