Julia Winter

Julia Krupenia (Winter) - NL/RU
(1965) in Moscow, Russia.

Lives in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
I lived about twelve years in Workuta (North Pole). This period inspired me to take on the artist name of Julia Winter. Moving to Moscow and later my emigration to The Netherlands all have been feeding a consciousness of distraction, changing identities and growing knowledge about social and political differences.

The juxtaposition of different worlds is a recurrent theme in my works. I use opposites like male female, past-present or guilt-innocence and transmute them into a poetic or sometimes in a more political reality. In my work I constantly use meaningful layers that are placed over and upon each other.


Portfolio:

Double portraits

In Julia Winter’s double portraits the two personalities blend together, even if they come from totally different worlds. For example, in Young Lust, the face and upper part of the body of a young boy in a t-shirt covers an image of a seventeenth-century lady in a black gown. They differ in gender, time of origin, The boy looks quite self-conscious whilst the woman is decorous. She represents a social class that can commission a portrait. It is clear that the two images come from two completely different worlds. By presenting the two worlds in a single composite portrait the otherness is emphasised and raises questions about how we judge the other. It results in a hybrid picture that emerges from bringing together disparate elements. At a time when emigration has become a common phenomenon, we have to accept an ongoing negotiation and exchange between irreconcilable differences. In the media, we see a huge number of different faces and in our cities we experience new national and ethnic mixtures. By juxtaposing two identities, Winter composes two overlapping images of faces which is at the same time a play of forms, colours and perspectives.

Double U “Double U”

I explore the phenomenon of the portrait and, more specifically, how we perceive the other. In this artwork I use photographic images . This is 'double portrait' in which the first transparent image is mounted on Plexiglas whilst the second portrait is affixed to the underlying surface of the frame. This means that we look through the first layer at the second one and thus end up seeing and recognising a mash of two portraits.

Double U & U “Double U & U”

I am exploring the phenomenon of the portrait, more specifically, how we perceive the other. In my “Double You” portraits two personalities blend together, even if they come from totally different worlds.

You and Me “You and Me”

I am exploring the phenomenon of the portrait, more specifically, how we perceive the other. In my “Double You” portraits two personalities blend together, even if they come from totally different worlds.

Lora “Lora”

I am exploring the phenomenon of the portrait, more specifically, how we perceive the other. In my “Double You” portraits two personalities blend together, even if they come from totally different worlds.