Kolja Kärtner Sainz (b.1998) is a German painter based in Leipzig and a student at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig.

Kolja Kärtner Sainz seeks an ideal intermediate state where representation and abstraction can coexist. Deeply exploring this intersection, he tries to freely interpret states of nature and the artificial and not to capture rigid moments, but rather blurs, movements and changes in perception.

„A driving force in my process is my constant need to integrate representative structures into pictures and my equally strong need to suppress them again. Each painting marks a new way of diving into this conflict and working on it until it reaches a state of conclusion. I paint purely associatively, without preliminary sketches and develop my images freely on the canvas. I use heavily diluted oil paint and ink to create very matt and transparent picture surfaces which leave textures, image decisions and other traces of my process openly visible on the canvas. In this process colour takes on a lot of different roles.

Sometimes a single colour can take the role of a protagonist, reappering throughout a series or body of work. Other times I use it as a narrator of sorts, embedding and enriching whats depicted in my paintings. Another factor essential to my practice is referentiality. Looking at art by contemporaries from all media and communicating with them by making works on my own, for me is one of the most exciting things about creating. “

Kolja Kärtner Sainz, 05/23

As an emerging artist, in 2023, Kolja Kärtner Sainz will be exhibiting in Groupshows with

Spencer Brownstone Gallery (New York); Tabula Rasa Gallery (Beijing); Reuter Bausch

(Luxembourg) and will have a Solo Show with DS Galerie (Paris).