A Helene Wurlitzer Foundation fellow and international BP Portrait Award exhibitor, NatalieVoelker creates paintings, murals, and art installations that investigate complexity and transcendence in seemingly ordinary people. Her painting, “Davetta,” has been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London as well as the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh and the Ulster Museum in Belfast, Ireland. Her work has been featured in multiple publications including the anthology, BARED, and the French-English magazine, VolUp. 

 

Voelker has produced commissioned works for the Harwood Art Center, 508 Mural Festival, the City of Albuquerque, and various private collections – both nationally and abroad. She has a BFA from the University of Wisconsin and currently lives and works in Albuquerque, NM.

 

Through the lens of the intimate, personal, and specific, my work explores transcendental possibilities embedded within human experience. Elevating the mundane, these paintings invite viewers to look deeply and compassionately at our fellow human beings. By intentionally withholding any particular narrative reading of the subject Via a kind of observational magic or alchemy, my search for what is specific and unique in each subject, reveals also the familiar, universal, and transcendental. My process begins by holding an openness to multiple meanings and ways of making sense of the world as I record my focused observation of an other. I am continually exploring my own perception, point of view, and creative interpretation of human experience through depictions of others. My ever evolving relationship with materials and the formal aspects of image-making combine with a respectful and honest regard for the people I paint. For me, the process reveals meanings, and I allow multiple meanings to emerge through an intense engagement with the act of making. 

 

This work does not aim to make any singular point. Rather, it is an invitation to consider multiple ways of seeing, interpreting, and understanding. Above all, it is a call to participate in a shared recognition of the transcendental nature of our essential humanity. g, and understanding. Above all, it is a call to participate in a shared recognition of the transcendental nature of our essential humanity.