DGA Faces #02 Woodcut Expert Andreas Kramer

In the course of the newly established woodcut workshops at the DGA we want to continue the series »DGA Faces«, in which we gradually introduce the artists working here.

We would like to introduce you to Andreas Kramer, our guest workshop leader and woodcut expert.

Andreas Kramer studied industrial design, graphics and painting at the University of Art and Design Halle, Burg Giebichenstein and painting at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice.

Numerous solo exhibitions, including in Berlin, Frankfurt, Leipzig, Hanover, Halle, Bonn, Venice, Turin, Padua, Rome, Vicenza, London, Brazil and Australia.

Andreas Kramer lives and works in Berlin and Italy.

Which woodcut characteristics make it your favorite technique?

Woodblock printing is the oldest of all printing techniques and wood embodies nature and naturalness – both together have fascinated me from the beginning.

Where do you get your inspiration for motifs from? Can you recommend sources?

The intuitive and at the same time very conscious and systematic play with color is the real theme of all my work regardless of technique and working method — the woodcut offers me the ideal stage for this.

The woodcuts embody more than any other technique my search for the essential, for timeless images. The works emerge from an initially consciously sought chaos in a very slow process in which the works undergo one metamorphosis after another, color by color, printing block by printing block, »work in process«, until the sound of the colors and the rhythm of the lines and surfaces convince me.

Which woodcut artists do you find particularly interesting?

I don’t have and didn’t have any actual role models in woodblock printing and for that very reason, I felt and still feel very free in dealing with this technique.

In the series »DGA Faces« we gradually introduce the artists working here. In this way, we share the concentrated printing knowledge of the studio with you digitally too!