Katerina Belkina
Layers of Self
"The concept of reflection is central to my work. Who am I? What can I give to nature? How can I change society?"
Career Highlights
Solo Exhibitions
- Milchhäuschen, Park am Weissen See, Germany (2024)
- Galerie Z22, Berlin, Germany (2023)
- Prince House Gallery, Mannheim, Germany (2023)
- Stadtpfarrkirche, Müncheberg, Germany (2022)
- Faur Zsófi Gallery, Budapest, Hungary (2022)
- Museum for Art Crafts Design, Berlin, Germany (2021)
- CreArte Studio, Oderzo, Italy (2019)
- Galerie Lilja Zakirova, Heusden, Netherlands (2018)
- Being 3 Gallery, Beijing, China (2015)
- Duncan Miller Gallery, Santa Monica, United States (2014)
Publications
- Future Now – Aesthetica Art Prize (2023)
- Art Market Magazine (2021)
- Mapping the Invisible: Photography and the Expanded Field (2020)
- The Figure of Christ in Contemporary Photography (2020)
- Light and Lens: Photography in the Digital Age (2018)
- Hasselblad Masters (2016)
Group Exhibitions
- NordArt, Buedelsdorf, Germany (2024)
- Museum of Applied Arts and Design, Vilnius, Lithuania (2024)
- CREA Cantieri del Contemporaneo Venice, Italy (2024)
- photoSCHWEIZ, Zurich, Switzerland (2024)
- Galerie Christine Knauber, Berlin, Germany (2023)
- Faur Zsófi Gallery, Budapest, Hungary (2023)
- Art Contemporain Conference, Cannes, France (2022)
- Brandenburgischer Kunstpreis, Schloss Neuhardenberg, Germany (2021)
- Korea International Photo Festival, Seoul, Korea (2020)
- BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt, Berlin, Germany (2020)
Biennials
- XIV Florence Biennale, Florence, Italy (2023)
- Biennial of Digital Art, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2022)
- OSTRALE Biennale, Dresden, Germany (2019)
- 5th Mediations Biennale, Poznan, Poland (2016)
- The Ballarat International Foto Biennale, Ballarat, Austria (2015)
Awards
- Vienna International Photo Award, Special Prize (2024)
- Beyond Future Art Prize, Winner (2023)
- German Photo Book Award (2021)
- Moscow International Foto Awards, 3rd Prize (2017)
- Hasselblad Masters, 1st Prize (2016)
- Lucas-Cranach-Prize, Lutherstadt Wittenberg, 1st Prize (2015)
- Kandinsky Prize, Moscow, Nominee (2007)
Private Collections
- Allen & Ellen Goldman Collection, New York, USA
- Angela & Syfra van de Loo Collection, Netherlands
- HBC Global Art Collection, New York, USA
- Hugo and Carla Brown Art Collection, Netherlands
- LAM Lisse Art Museum, Netherlands
- m&n collection, Aachen, Germany
- Stiftung Christliche Kunst, Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Germany
- The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
What truths lie hidden within us? Katerina Belkina engages her distinctive visual language for the tangible expressions of abstract emotions to take us on a journey of self-realization.
Capturing the realistic nature of characters through photography while using painting techniques to transform the tone and experience of spaces, Belkina asks us to take a closer look at ourselves, our presumptions, and our society.
Resonating with particular urgency, Belkina embodies the energy of human interactions in her work, allowing her to deconstruct our social fabric, enlightening deeper and more nuanced perspectives on how we connect with the world around us.
Through four key series of work, viewers of Layers of Self experience Belkina’s artistic practice of portraiture reveal new outlooks on how art can be a vehicle for the complexities of humanity to take on physical form.
In her earlier works, Belkina reimagines her own image. She creates self-portraiture, merging subject and artist in a contradictory display of intimacy and distance. As the realism of her photographs slips into soft and painterly depictions, she brings attention to the act of viewing. Through her self-expression, we consider how the body manifests emotions, altering the ways they examine, understand, and identify themselves.
"I started to investigate my inspirations... This transformed into learning more about myself through an attempt to trace the process of creation of world masterpieces."
However, our identity is often built by the social constructs instilled in our society generation after generation. Belkina upends how we view these norms, our complacency with them, and the personal and shared experiences they produce through portraits that channel the universal language of fairy tales. Revising the archetypes from these cultural stories and traditions of storytelling, her audience can begin to dismantle fact from fiction in their own lives.
"For me, the color is of the same importance in the composition as a form is... a good artist’s subconscious works quicker than the conscious does to select a correct decision."
As time progresses, her visions become ethereal, almost absurd, yet deeply familiar. She evokes dichotomies such as masculine and feminine or beauty and disgust. Commonplace settings, such as cities filled with women reveling in their freedom, provide a platform for Belkina to subtly critique the unseen, invasive male gaze that permeates everyday spaces.
"I think visual images are a direct way to our feelings and they can very strongly influence our minds."
Turning inward, Layers of Self culminates with Belkina’s romanticization of escape from human limitations and earthly struggles.
Despite the surreal, alien-like nature of these landscapes, she unearths a sense of comfort in the infinite. In an exploration of the vastness of the mind, viewers meditate on the tension between permanence and impermanence.
Seeing through the interpretations illuminated within Belkina’s works, the fluidity of identity is revealed. Who we are is a question with no single answer but multiple, made up of the personal and societal roles we inhabit. Invited into the worlds the artist has crafted, we join her in the act of peeling back the layers of perpetuated narratives that shape us.
About the Artist
Katerina Belkina (b. 1974) is a visual artist whose richly atmospheric compositions blend painterly textures with photographic realism, creating intimate, otherworldly scenes that bridge traditional and digital mediums.
Her early years were shaped by a creative atmosphere fostered by her mother, a visual artist, igniting her passion for art. She then honed her skills and artistic vision at the Art Academy and the School for Photography in Samara, Russia.
Belkina’s work is inherently theatrical; she often uses her own body to embody the spectrum of human emotions. Her art reclaims the portrayal of women as powerful sources of energy, balance, and harmony, shifting them from objects of gaze to active forces of self-determination.
Katerina Belkina lives and works in Werder (Havel) near Berlin, Germany.
Artworks
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Katerina Belkina Auspice (2019) Archival pigment print (framed)
(h) 75 x (w) 100 cm
Edition 1 of 8 + 2 AP
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Katerina Belkina Cook, little Pot, Cook (2021) Archival pigment print (framed)
(h) 90 x (w) 65 cm
Edition 2 of 8 + 2 AP
-
Katerina Belkina Mars (2023) Archival pigment print (framed)
(h) 52 x (w) 60 cm
Edition 4 of 7 + 2 AP
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Katerina Belkina Moonrise (2022) Archival pigment print (framed)
(h) 60 x (w) 52 cm
Edition 2 of 7 + 2 AP
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Katerina Belkina Moonset (2022) Archival pigment print (framed)
(h) 60 x (w) 52 cm
Edition 2 of 7 + 2 AP
-
Katerina Belkina Rosamond (2019) Archival pigment print (framed)
(h) 90 x (w) 65 cm
Edition 1 of 8 + 2 AP
-
Katerina Belkina Sweet Dreams (2019) Archival pigment print (framed)
(h) 75 x (w) 100 cm
Edition 1 of 8 + 2 AP
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Katerina Belkina The Spell (2020) Archival pigment print (framed)
(h) 75 x (w) 100 cm
Edition 1 of 8 + 2 AP
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Katerina Belkina Premonition (2019) Archival pigment print (framed)
(h) 75 x (w) 100 cm
Edition 1 of 8 + 2 AP
-
Katerina Belkina The Race (2014) Archival pigment print (framed)
(h) 100 x (w) 130 cm
Edition 1 of 6 + 2 AP
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Katerina Belkina For Klimt (2006) Archival pigment print (framed)
(h) 40 x (w) 28 cm
Edition 4 of 15 + 2 AP
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