Karola Ainsar ^{Emerging artist}

Artist's country of origin: Estonia

My painting practice is heavily influenced by an undying sense of yearning, and by the religion studies, which are primarily connected to the new religious movements. In creating the visual imagery I use in my work, I draw on various (Christian) scriptures, rituals and their origin stories, and focus on on the the frequently recurring motifs that are set up as opposites — heavenly and earthly, here and there, purity and impurity, life and death, above and below.

There is often a liminal space between these different sides to which, in my paintings, I give a form of a gate, a bridge or some other portal, in order to ponder whether and how it might be possible to reach the other side — the one which is longed for.