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Biography
Francien Krieg [1973] is a Dutch artist who lives in the middle of The Netherlands.
She graduated from the art academy in The Hague in 1998, obtaining a degree in Monumental art, which brought her to think conceptually and during which she discovered her fascination for the human body.

A few years later, she picked up her passion for painting .She expressed her fascination for the human body in paintings with unusual body perspectives.

Francien’s career development brought her works to be shown at exhibitions like the art fair Scope Basel, the art fair Realisme Amsterdam, Robert Lange Studios in Charleston USA, From motion to Stillness Chicago at Zhou B art center, Townsend atelier Women painting women [r]evolution Tennessee US and recently an exhibition at Gallery Beinart named Strak realisme featuring Effie Pryer and Ville Lopponen .
In 2017, she was nominated for the Dutch Portrait Award and shortlisted for the Figurativas 2017/2019 at MEAM in Barcelona.

The journey, 80 x 100 cm, 2019, oil on linen

Most important exhibitions:
2019:  MEAM  Painting  today  groupexhibition international womensday
2018: Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art, Wausau, US, Painting the figure NOW
2017: Gallery Beinart, Brunswick, Australia, met Effie Pryer en Ville Loponen
2011: Galerie Mokum, Amsterdam, solo
2013: Galerie van Campen & Rochtus Antwerp, Belgium, Begeerte, curator Natasja Bennink

Moonlight grace, 160 x 100 cm, 2019, oil on linen,

The artist Francien Krieg describes her vision about her work
The truth is that I paint myself ... and therefore the battle of my own body with age, my own fears and my fascination with death.

That fascination began at an early age because my father was preoccupied with death. His mother passed away at a young age and the subject was taboo, nothing could be said about her death. As a result this had such an impact on his thoughts that as an adult he conducted a thorough investigation on whether there is life after death. Listening to voices of deceased people and the radio program 'The black hole' with Andre Groote filled the living room on Sunday afternoon.
His fascination also became mine, but this only became apparent years later when I was in art school. I made installations made of skins, meat heads, empty cocoons and baby skins. What appealed to me in this is the contrast between the tangible and the intangible of the body, the familiar contrasts with the distance that I feel in my body.
The sudden death of a close friend during my time at the academy reinforced this feeling. The distance to my own body and my mistrust of it became even greater. Would my body also betray me in this manner? What followed was a long search that is still on-going, a search for the acceptance of transience.
In the early stages I created paintings in which human forms were visible. I painted these in a detached manner: heads were removed, the bodies were decorative, eye contact was almost non-existent, there was no contact with the viewer. As my work developed I was sitting closer to the skin, from strange perspectives I showed the alienation to my own body. My fascination with the body deepened, I began to paint other people, especially those who deviate from the ideal of beauty. But even more, I really wanted to paint people like you and me, a universal image of the aging person. Staying true to myself, I have confined myself to the female body.

Grattitude, 60 x 120 cm, 2018, oil on linen