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Cornelia Schleime is a German painter, performer, filmmaker and author. She studied painting and graphic arts at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts before becoming a member of the underground art scene. She was awarded the Hannah Höch Lifetime Achievement Award from the State of Berlin in 2016.
Schleime's painting style is inspired by artists that were a strong influence in her classical studies such as Bacon and Balthus, Monet, Rembrandt, and Van Gogh.
Schleime has focused since the 1990s on figures and large-format portraits. Sources of inspiration are glossy magazines, reproductions of all kinds, but also personal photographs or snapshots found at flea markets. Through the intuitive act of drawing or painting, she turns those she depicts into something creative of her own, projecting them in new roles, symbolically emphasising the poses encountered or highlighting aspects with a touch of fantasy and irony.
