Art:
A Gift Forever
Text:
Marcelo Lapola
Photos: Paulo Koelle
Translation by Walene Carrijo
Upon
entering the home studio, one soon has the clear, nice sensation
that in this
place, art is breathed in the most pure meaning of the word. Wide
spaces
interspersed with sculptures, the majority of which are portraying
the female
body and its infinite spatial possibilities, provides the observer
with a picture
of the environment where this art is dreamed up and created, in
the calm town
of Rio Claro, near São Paulo, the biggest city in South America.
Whether
it is a studio in the home or being at home in the studio, as
the artist herself likes to define, her art is never disassociated
from her
everyday life.
Perceptive
and sensitive, Cris Koelle never detaches herself from the world
in order to conceive her sculptures and jewelry.
Her
artistic style is full of multiple paradoxes, among them the deeply
profound lightness conceived using heavy materials such as metals
and
resins. One of her best-known works is the figurine of a tiny brass
woman
r esting on a goblet, which can also be used as a broach or necklace.
An artist by graduation and definition, Cris Koelle puts on her
pieces of
art the grace, lightness and the intoxicating sensuality of the
Brazilian woman.
Far
beyond simple ornaments, full of concepts, Cris Koelle’s sculptures
are
known in several countries for their delicacy and originality. Her
website
www.criskoelle.com receives visitors from all over the world looking
for the
originality of Brazilian works of art.
Cris
Koelle’s career started in the early 1970’s, and nowadays
she has
customers worldwide - being mostly in Lisbon, Munich and New York.
She states that even when her pieces are ordered by companies and
are
custom-made (many times as gifts for customers or recognition for
employees), she always uses her artistic intuition in the creation
of them.
If
one of the most important aspects of Art with a capital “A”
is the
subversion of shapes and common gestures, with this Brazilian artist,
this concept is enhanced to a great proportion, for her art goes
against any
“common-place” ideas.
The
“wearable art” by Cris Koelle balances the refined without
being
indefinable, the common without becoming the obvious, and the
movement without exaggerating an impossible juggling.
Better
than having Cris Koelle’s pieces within the reach of hands
and eyes is to
give or to receive them as a gift. For those who receive one of
her sculptures,
the experience is renewed at each glimpse, or in the artist’s
own words
“A gift forever”.
