Birthe Piontek
We are excited to feature the work of Birthe Piontek's this week. She is someone whose work and continuation of pushing the creative process and crossing platforms is both inspiring and captivating. Still lives, objects, portraits, both photographs & mixed media and more, set the stage for a mysterious and alluring body of work built on layers of reoccurring themes.
Originally from Germany, Birthe moved to Canada in 2005 after receiving her MFA from the University of Essen in Communication Design and Photography.
Birthe describes her art practice as an exploration of the individual while being especially interested in questions around memory, the subconscious, as well as the topic of female identity and its representation in our society. Her main focus is photography but she also utilizes other art forms like installation, assemblage and collage to investigate to what degree our complex identities can be visualized.
Her work has been exhibited internationally, in both solo and group shows, and is featured in many private and public collections such as the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago and the Museum of Applied Arts in Gera, Germany.
Birthe's project The Idea of North won the Critical Mass Book Award 2009, and was published as a monograph in 2011. She was nominated for the AIMIA AGO Award 2014, and her project Lying Still was shortlisted for the Edward Burtinsky Grant in 2016.
Her work has appeared in a number of international publications like The New York Times Magazine, Le Monde, Wired and The New Yorker among others.
Birthe is a member of the Piece of Cake Project.
all images ©Birthe Piontek