From East Germany emerges the talents and fortitude of Kathrin Longhurst, born “behind the Iron Curtain” of the Berlin Wall. A classically trained figurative painter, Kathrin began attending life drawing classes at the age of fourteen. At 15 years of age, Longhurst and her family fled the political unrest of East Germany and found peace in Sweden. Throughout her childhood, communist propaganda was of high prominence and surrounded Longhurst in battle-glorified imagery of soldiers clad in war attire. The contrast between former Berlins’ totalitarianism and Swedens’ democratic ways ignited Kathrins’ desire to explore the concept of freedom of speech and equality.

“Born out of my own experience of overcoming suppression and adversity, growing up in Former East Germany, a feeling of displacement and insecurity when moving to the West, I felt the strong desire to turn difficult experiences into something powerful and positive.”
Kathrin Longhurst

Throughout her time as a young adult, now free of her war-revolved past, Kathrin refined her enthusiasm for self-expression and exemption from mandatory compliance, which she conveys through her highly commended paintings of women in battle. The beautiful subjects within her works with fierce red lipstick, chiselled facial features and piercing eyes, yet all with an undertone of femininity and tenderness, were ultimately what brought her to fame after her first solo exhibition in 2004.

“The creative process can have an enormous healing effect on anyone experiencing adversity.”
Kathrin Longhurst

  

These artworks of bravery that question women of the past’s incapability to fight for their country have won her numerous finalist prizes and nominations, including the Sulman Prize in 2012, the Portia Geach Award for all years between 2011-2017, the Mosman Art Prize in 2016, and the Doug Moran Portrait Prize in 2017. Most notably, Longhurst was a finalist in the Archibald Prize in 2018.

After travelling widely throughout Europe, Asia and America, Kathrin settled in Sydney with her Australian husband and has become a well-respected member of the Sydney arts community. Having risen from a past of restraint and submission, Kathrin and her family have a prominent appreciation for their surroundings of peace, nature and a united society.

Her work is collected widely in Australia and internationally.

Each Limited Edition Kathrin Longhurst print is signed and numbered by the artist, with only 20 prints available for each piece.

View all of our Kathrin Longhurst Prints here