Contrary to Ellsworth Kelly, who disdains having paintings hung in households and offices, Ai-Wen Wu Kratz makes it her goal to bring her paintings into living and working spaces. Kratz finds it fulfilling to be able to bring peace and happiness to others through her paintings. Concurring with Kelly, she feels for flat surfaces and monumental scales.
Kratz’s paintings, sometimes, are composed of shaped canvases. Often, in one composite, she uses both cotton and linen canvas; her intention is to use the natural hues of the raw canvas as color among colors from her use of acrylic paint. She draws inspiration from contemporary stage design, choreographic lines in dance, vocal art, operatic lyrics and literature.
Ai-Wen Wu Kratz, a native of Hong Kong, works and lives in the U.S. She received her BFA from Fort Wright College in Spokane, Washington and her MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. She is an alumna of Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and of the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture. In addition to the United States, Kratz has had solo exhibitions in France, Germany, England, Egypt and Austria. Her works are in collections in Canada, Germany, Bangladesh, Argentina and the U.S., including the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum in St. Louis, MO.
