Karin Broos

The models in Karin Broos' paintings are usually drawn from her immediate family, such as her daughters and grandchildren. The seemingly mundane situations are often ambiguous and charged with undertones of contemplation.

Broos uses her own photographs as inspiration and memory support in a laborious artistic process. It is a female world that Broos depicts, women, children and dogs in a frozen moment. Their faces are often turned away, their task is not to meet the viewer's gaze, and their bodies are not depicted to please the art audience. Broo's models are allowed to be themselves. Immersed in their own thoughts, they give a relaxed and confident impression. No doubt the artist's close relationship with his models plays a large part in this.

In the painting 'Berlin 2', Karin Broos has depicted one of her daughters while they are visiting Berlin. The scene is from the Hall of Mirrors in Clärchen's Ballroom at Auguststrasse 24 in Berlin, which is now a tourist attraction. Opened in 1913 by Clara and Fritz Bühler, the ballroom was first called 'Bühler's Tanzhaus', but quickly became known as 'Clärchen's'. The socialites enjoyed themselves in the hall of mirrors while the common people in the dance hall. For more than 100 years, 'Clärchen's' has been entertaining Berliners and is today one of the few remaining dance halls from the early 20th century.

Karin Broos got her breakthrough quite late in her career with an exhibition at Kristinehamn Art Museum in 2008, which was followed by exhibitions at Borås Art Museum, Christian Larsen Gallery, Sven Harry's Art Museum and Waldemarsudde in Stockholm. She has said that she is grateful that it took so long, the family and the work developed hand in hand.

Karin Broos studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 's-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands between 1970 and 1975. The artist has described how she had previously been a searching soul and how she felt she had found the right place in the harsh discipline of the art school. The days were filled with drawing and modeling in the old tradition, and after each academic year there was an evaluation and selection of students. There was a constant striving for perfection. After graduation, the longing for Swedish nature and a simpler life was strong. Together with her husband Marc they found a house in Värmland where they settled down. For a while after graduation, Broos painted excessively roughly to distance himself from perfection. After a period of abstract painting, Karin Broos turned to photo-realistic art late in life.