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Christina Zimpel

Christina Zimpel (°1961, New York, USA)

The works seem to hover in an ulterior space, where what Zimpel delineates with her brush or her striking, saturated colour choices is just as crucial to the image as what she chooses to omit, sublimate, or suggest.  Faces, bodies, or even the occasional still life are brought to life with a confident - if reductive - approach. Somehow these large planes of colour seem charged with emotion and an unbridled desire to break the rules of figurative painting. She credits some of this to her youth in Australia in the '70s, as well as the folkloric teachings of her Hungarian mother, both of which find their way into the soul of these paintings. 

She states that her figure, typically female and typically of a Victorian-esque ilk, is portrayed 'how they might present themselves at an audition in our time. How to behave in that discomfort is interesting to me. I am, via my characters, inviting myself onto the stage to express these delicate feelings.' This feigned portrayal comes across, through stifled poses or strange colour combinations, presenting a feeling of disquiet that is as inviting as it is enervating. 

Where Zimpel does seem to indulge in excess is in the posings and stylings of these glamorous (or wannabe glamorous) women. Luxuriant hairstyles allow unbridled brushstrokes that curl and introduce excess into her strict compositions. 

"I exaggerate, reduce and modernize archetypes," she states. Alluding to punk, Belle Epoque, and Romanesque sources of inspiration. "With attention to body language I’m representing dignity, awkwardness, and humor." 

 

Christina Zimpel grew up in Perth, Western Australia and received her BFA, in Design and Photography from Curtin University, Perth Western Australia. She currently resides in New York and works from her studio in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. 

Christina has exhibited at The Cabin and The Bunker, Los Angeles, Beers and The Saatchi Gallery, London UK,1 GAP, Brooklyn NY, HAGD Contemporary, Aalborg Denmark, Schönfeld Gallery, Brussels Belgium, C Square Gallery, Taichung City Taiwan, the Olsen Gallery, Sydney Australia, Rafael Perez Hernando, Madrid Spain , and has participated in Untitled Art Fair, Miami, Estampa Contemporary Fair, Madrid Spain, CAN Art Fair, Ibiza Spain, Drawing Now, Paris France , Art on Paper, Brussels Belgium, International Contemporary Drawing Fair, Brussels Belgium, Luxembourg Art Week, Luxembourg, and Door County Contemporary Art Fair, Wisconsin. Christina has also collaborated with the fashion house Hermès on their Faubourg Saint-Honore Paris and Williamsburg NY store windows.

Selected Images

  1. Alien

    2022

  2. Red Weeds

    2020

  3. Brown Sweater

    2023

  4. Sleep Clinic #2

    2022

  5. Ginger

    2022

  6. Pink Woman

    2021

  7. Molehill

    2022

  8. Haircut

    2023

  9. Red Balaclava

    2021

  10. Charlotte

    2023

  11. Smart woman

    2023

Exhibitions

  1. Christina Zimpel Wherever You Go, There You Are

    Brussels Coming soon: November 8 — December 19, 2026

    Discover more

Media

  1. The I's inside

    2022

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