MUNTHE ART MONDAY: CARINA SCHUBERT

Website: www.schubertgallery.com
@Instagram: @schubert_gallery

Please introduce yourself and tell us about what you do.

My name is Carina Schubert. I am a Vienna based artist. I paint big colorful abstract feeling landscapes and feeling faces. I describe my art as empowering art and feminist art. With my large abstract acrylic paintings, I express all kind of feelings and needs I have as a woman, an artist and a mother. With my figurative art I try to symbolize female self-confidence as a daily reminder. During my pregnancy I founded an art gallery and online shop with my own art, SCHUBERT GALLERY.

Could you explain more about how being a woman has affected your career?

A big focus in my art is expressing my feelings. As a girl and woman, I was socialized to always be friendly and nice, to smile, to be grateful, to adapt and to keep harmony. My art was always my channel of expression where I could express also anger, fear and sadness. The more I worked on this I realized that especially those negative feelings have such a power when you let them out and that you can create something with it. I do it with painting and writing. I am convinced that every woman can find her own channel to express her negative feelings which can empower her to live her life more and more how she actually wants to live it.

Can you name some other female (artist) that inspires you and explain why they do so?

As a girl I was always inspired by Frida Kahlo, her paintings, her diaries and how she expressed her feelings so honestly with painting herself so many times. I visited her studio in Mexico and I feel such a connection to her. The Austrian painter Maria Lassnig also inspires me a lot. Her body awareness paintings in which she paints her own body and expresses the way she feels are impressive. Kiki Kogelnik, also an Austrian artist used colour and bodies to visualize important feminist topics and is such an inspiration to me. I also admire Barbara Kruger who makes female thoughts visible with letters and photos in such a clear way.

What has been the most challenging aspect of being a female artist?

Now that I am a mother I have so many different roles. It is very challenging for me to keep my own space. To keep my Me-time. To isolate myself. To be not available. At the same time, I feel lonely when I am for myself for too long. It is the balance which I am looking for but which I haven’t found so far.

What would you like people to notice in your artwork?

I would like them to notice how they associate the painting with their own life. What do they see? How does the title and the story of the painting resonate with them? What does the painting do with them? How do they feel when they look at the painting? Paintings do not only change the atmosphere of a room, but they also change the people who look at them every day. Paintings can be a daily reminder of how you want to live your life.

Carina is wearing our GARUM pants and matching GASEIA top.