10 Questions with Silke Wolff

Silke Wolff studied drawing and design at the best international colleges. For several months each year, she traveled the world. Wolff worked internationally as a freelancing product designer. With an exhibition at Wilhelm Hack Museum, Ludwigshafen, Germany 2019, she began her fine art career. 2023 Wolff exhibits at 6 European Art Fairs and several exhibitions worldwide.

balthasart.com/en/artist/silke-wolff | @silke.wolff.popart

ARTIST STATEMENT

The pop-art fine artist Silke Wolff opens a secret, supernatural universe with her metaphysical graphics.
Through her widened consciousness, which she has been developing for 20 years of daily meditative practice, she is able to perceive this sphere of existence.
Such unique situations she catches with oil pastel drawings in sketchbooks. From these ideas, her series arise, which she creates as digital collages and complete with texts.

INTERVIEW

Let’s talk about yourself first. You worked as a product designer before turning to art. When and how did you start getting involved with visual arts? 

Since early childhood, I have drawn and painted free works like book illustrations, portraits, interior architecture, and abstracts. Over the years, I digitalized most of them.
In 2019 I got invited by the big Wilhelm Hack Museum Ludwigshafen to join in an exhibition project, “Gewächse der Seele”, which I did with enthusiasm. During this exhibition, the director of the British Outside In online Gallery invited me to publish my fine artwork in his gallery. Local and regional exhibitions followed, and in 2023 I successfully stepped out into the international fine art business with analog and digital exhibitions in galleries and fine art fairs in Europe, the USA, Brasil and Canada. My pictures are published in 3 fine art catalogs and I received 2 certificates from biafarin, gallerium Gallery Canada, "unreal, children" and Verum Ultimum Gallery, USA, "Abrazo".

You traveled extensively and had significant international experiences. How much does this influence your current practice as an artist?

My journeys widened my horizon. When I started to develop my broadened consciousness, this was yet another new world to me, like other physical ones I had experienced before. Since 2021 I have depicted this fantastical metaphysical world which I perceive mentally in large series. Comparable to travel sketchbooks. 

You started your art career in 2019. What, for you, is the most enjoyable part of your art? And what is so far your favorite experience as an artist?

The creation of new works is my favorite part of the fine art activities. Easily I get into a flow and don’t want to stop working then.
Goals and dreams guide me through my business. Whenever one comes true, this is then my favorite experience. Like having been discovered by Balthasart online Gallery; chosen out of 560 applicants from Agaphe Gallery: exhibiting at Verum Ultimatum, Las Laguna, and KBMart Galleries in the US; VYA Gallery reaching out for me; Artlymix Gallery selecting my work already for a second time; being chosen for this interview; publishing at Ars Artis catalog. I still hope for a collector to buy a complete series after having seen one picture and the DIN A3 compilation copies at a fair – being remunerated for contributions - There are still vivid dreams to hopefully come true in the future.

Let’s talk about your digital collages. Can you explain your concept and how you are working on it?

My subconscious does the major part of it. I basically carry the work out physically. From the 1,5 Million energetic personalities (Energetis) Silke some form groups caring about my daily life. Mentally, verbally together, we then form assignments for me (Bio) to do.
Every collage is composed of elements for which I need 1 DIN A4 page or more with handwritten laptop “Gimp” orders each. Since the supernatural Andy Warhol advised me to do so, I created one finished picture prior to going to the serial works. In Sketches, drawings, and paintings, I encircle a subject for many years before I decide to do a series about it.

Where do you find inspiration for your work, and what is your creative process like?

Since 1996 I have meditated daily. With this concentration to myself, I developed a broader consciousness. With the mental version of all of my senses, I experience a purely energetic world. Some actors of this world are depicted in my “Meta” cycle. Cycle “Supra” then tells about some interactions of this metaphysical world with the known physical world. In the current cycle, “Para,” I show some special capabilities the energetic actors have. The single cycles are composed of up to 8 series with 100 single pictures, the largest series, “Meta Jungle.” My surrealistic work is all structured.
When I create, I sit alone, smoke cigarettes, and drink sweet white coffee. Mentally with pictures and text, in communication with my “Energetis”, I go from the past to the future - from already done work to new work, from the rough structure to the detail. This I write down on scrap paper in words and sketches. Sometimes it takes months until I can go from these notes to the laptop. Too much marketing and sales work has to have priority.

Why do you use this visual language? And how has it evolved over the years?

As long as I can remember, I love colors. During product design studies, I sometimes received bad grades for drawing a screw not only in gray tones or adding color to a car radio. With fine art, I may follow this colorful liking. The room I live and work in is very limited. Digital working gives me the possibility to create a lot not taking extra storage space.

What do you hope that the public takes away from your work?

Yellow clothes are my favorite. It happens that passengers praise my style walking by. Similar to these experiences public might smile joyfully, glimpsing at my Pop Art pictures. Those who get the chance to read the texts of my surrealistic series learn about a sphere of existence that is beyond physical proof. They widen their horizon.

Your work has a very recognizable style, characterized by pop colors. How did you come up with this style? 

A few days ago, I turned 58 years of age. More than 4 thousand drawings with different media are archived on my laptop. Those I most like to look at again pop up as wallpaper (3.479 images). The wallpaper ones are all colored. When I present sketchbooks, people look longer to colored pictures than to black and white ones or to line-outs. Experience and personal liking form my style.

What are you working on now, and what are your plans for the future in terms of new projects? 

"Para Recycling" will be the title of my 7th series from the cycle "Para". Not much more than the title is ready yet. Instead of working on my new creation, I take the pleasure of writing this interview, hosting an exhibition with 17 works downtown, and caring about my upcoming exhibitions in Europe and abroad. Tomorrow I plan to create again.

Finally, do you have any upcoming shows or collaborations you are looking forward to?

Yes, indeed, I am looking forward to several online exhibitions in the USA, an analog exhibition in Brasil, several participations at international art fairs in Europe, and a curated solo exhibition at Agaphe gallery in Barcelona. Maybe I will mint some of my pictures as NFTs. In fact, I already received two offers. Again a completely new world for me to discover. Exciting!

Artist’s Talk

Al-Tiba9 Interviews is a promotional platform for artists to articulate their vision and engage them with our diverse readership through a published art dialogue. The artists are interviewed by Mohamed Benhadj, the founder & curator of Al-Tiba9, to highlight their artistic careers and introduce them to the international contemporary art scene across our vast network of museums, galleries, art professionals, art dealers, collectors, and art lovers across the globe.