Patricia Hardmeier is a Swiss Argentine multi-disciplinary artist whose current practice is focused on oil-based monotypes. She received a BFA with distinction in Graphics and Movement-Based Design from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. She worked as designer and Art Director at several top graphic design studios in Zürich, Switzerland, and Los Angeles, doing print and motion graphics, and won international awards for her work.
While still practicing digital design, Patricia turned her attention to the old art world of printmaking. She recently participated at the London Art Biennale; Los Angeles Art Association; The Other Art Fair in Santa Monica, CA; Superfine! Art Fair in Los Angeles, CA.
Her work can be found in private collections in North America and Europe. She will be exhibiting at Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair in London, UK, in November. She is currently based in Zurich, Switzerland.
Statement
My artwork is inspired by my background in ballet and flamenco, as well as graphic design. The simple desire to move, the joy in it, is one of the purest expressions of life and all its complexities and that is the initiation for the movement of ink and paint. The motivations that define a dancer’s movement create the flow of paint for my prints.
Similarly to how dance is created by movement and ceased to be when the movement stops, becomes only a memory, the creation of the monotype print destroys my artwork, and the singular copy becomes the only reflection of my work.
My objective is to create expressive art that leaves space for the viewer to engage and find their own story, their own mental dance in what they see.
The beauty about monotypes lies in spontaneity and deliberate action. Once you make a mark, it cannot be corrected. There is no right or wrong, just consequences. This empowered me to open myself to the canvas and be more expressive. Over time, I settled into the new process and instinctually my pieces evolved into gestural abstract paintings.