Veronika Krämer

AQ is our series of hardcover catalogs celebrating extraordinary women artists. Available on Amazon. Visit the AQ Catalog Webpage to learn more.

Featured in AQ Volume IV: Veronika Krämer is an artist living in Berlin, Germany. Her abstract geometric paintings explore how simple lines and shapes can combine to produce complex constructs. The emphasis of her work is not on the individual shapes or colors, but rather on the relationships that develop between them and the rhythmic patterns they create.

Krämer’s works have been selected for various juried exhibitions in the USA, Germany, Italy, the UK, and Czechia. As a finalist in the "I. A. G. P." Competition, she was invited to exhibit her work at the art fair “Art Revolution Taipei 2023” in Taiwan. In 2023, she was also longlisted for the Aesthetica Art Prize and featured in the accompanying book “Future Now – Aesthetica Art Prize 2023.” She was recently selected to present her paintings at a biennial for the first time in 2025, the Osten Biennial in North Macedonia.


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What inspired you to become an artist, and how did you decide to commit to this path?

I grew up in an artistic family. One of my earliest memories of my grandfather, who was a professional painter, is sitting at the kitchen table with him, drawing cups and being taught about perspective. My mother, who had studied art for a few semesters, often took me and my brother to museums and encouraged us to paint, create, and do handicrafts. Art always played a role in my life, but for a long time, it was just a hobby, and I initially pursued a different career. I am still in the early stages of my career as an artist now. It was only about 6 years ago, after having had a longer break from painting, that I realized how important art was for me and for my emotional well-being. Painting only in my free time suddenly wasn’t enough anymore, so becoming a professional artist seemed like the only option. I knew that it was going to be challenging, especially before reaching a point where I could make a living with my art, but I promised myself to stick with it, and it has been an exciting journey so far.


Could you share the story or concept behind your recent work?

In my paintings, I love to assemble stripes or other geometric shapes, piece them together like fragments, and create something new out of them. So far, I had only done that in the figurative sense—by painting these fragments. To me, it seemed like a logical progression to actually also physically assemble pieces. This is why, for my latest series “Reconstruction,” I cut or tear up my previous paintings into strips of canvas. These old works then serve as the raw material for creating new pieces. The paintings that I “deconstruct” often simply did not turn out as intended or were fun experiments on canvas that led nowhere, but they also include some of my old practice paintings in different styles. Repurposing these old works is a deliberate gesture of letting go, and it feels very liberating to move beyond what I once might have perceived as failure and instead see potential in these pieces. Recombining the fragments into new compositions is like a dialogue between the past and the present for me, where each strip of canvas tells a story.


What was the most challenging part of your path so far? How are you navigating this obstacle?

I think the biggest challenges for me as an artist so far had to do with my insecurities, which partly stem from the fact that I do not have an arts degree. I felt like, since I was self-taught, others would not consider me a “real” artist, and I was afraid that my art simply might not be “good” enough. But I also knew that if I wanted to work as an artist, I would have to put myself and my art out there. Showing your work, connecting with other artists, and getting feedback is so important! I’ve learned to be okay with the thought that not everybody will like my work. And the positive feedback, especially from the juried shows I was selected to participate in, has definitely helped. Another challenge for me is that I sometimes get impatient and feel like I just don’t have enough time to paint all the paintings I have in mind, while at the same time practicing new techniques or skills, learning more about art history, and going to all the interesting exhibitions, all while still having a side job. I think many artists can relate to that. Whenever I feel like I am not progressing fast enough, I try to take a step back, focus more on the present moment, and remind myself that I really enjoy the process. It is the journey that matters, not the destination, and certainly not how fast you get there.


What role does experimentation and exploration play in your artistic practice?

I find that I best develop ideas while I experiment and try things out. Focusing more on the process and letting go of expectations concerning the outcome can be very liberating and often leads to unexpected discoveries. However, I sometimes get a bit caught up in my painting practice and put myself under a lot of pressure, wanting to be productive and create certain paintings that I have in mind in order to further develop a series I am working on. Whenever I realize that this happens, I try to take a break by drawing or painting something completely different. While I love to paint stripes—there is a meditative quality to always repeating the same shapes and the same brush movements—the “structure” of these paintings is already predetermined, which allows for less experimentation along the way. This is why I often work on more than one series at a time.


Do you have any start or stop rituals before creating?

I don’t have any particular rituals before I start to paint. However, I have noticed that I often find it difficult to start painting when I don’t have a work in progress. This causes me to think too much about all the paintings I could paint without actually being able to decide on one and start creating. Being able to pick up where I left off the day before solves this issue for me, so I try to always start a new painting while I am in the flow, before or right after finishing the previous painting.


What message do you hope your art conveys to the world?

One of the beautiful things about art, especially non-objective art, is that it is so open to interpretation. I love the idea that each viewer might see and experience something different when looking at my paintings. A fellow artist, standing in front of my stripe paintings at an exhibition, once told me: “I like it, but I don’t understand this kind of art.” I replied that for me, abstract art is not about understanding, but rather about feeling. I hope that my art touches people, or perhaps even evokes associations that make the viewer reflect on certain topics. While there isn’t a specific message that I would like to convey through my art, for me, it does address or contain different matters I think about, be it the interconnectedness of things or societal issues. My art is, after all, a direct product of what influences me on an everyday basis: my surroundings, experiences, thoughts, and emotions.


Share a mantra or favorite quote that keeps you going.

“Everything starts from a dot.” (Wassily Kandinsky)