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< Ira Hoffecker
Germany

ARTSPER

BIOGRAPHY

Ira Hoffecker is a German-Canadian artist. Relocating from Germany to Canada in 2004, now a Canadian citizen, she resides and maintains her art practice in Victoria, Canada. She is an active member of the Federation of Canadian Artists.

In August 2018 Ira achieved an MFA degree from Plymouth University in England and Transart Institue, New York, N.Y. Ira achieved a First Class Bachelor (Honours) in Fine Art from the University of Gloucestershire, England in 2015. Previously, Ira studied art at the Vancouver Island School of Art in Victoria, Canada where she obtained a Diploma of Fine Arts in 2013.
Her work has been exhibited in solo, duo and group exhibitions in Germany, England and Canada. In 2015, Ira was one of 20 UK graduates whose work was shortlisted for the Graduate Art Prize in London. She won the first prize in the juried ‘Abstract Show 2015’ in Vancouver with her painting Alexanderplatz VIII. Her Camp Moschendorf II painting was shortlisted for the John Moore Painting Prize 2016. The painting was exhibited at the 2016 Liverpool Biennial.

CV

2016 – 2018 Plymouth University, England and

Transart Institute, NYC, USA

M.F.A. August 2018

2014 – 2015 University of Gloucestershire, Cheltenham, England,

First Class Honours B.A. in Fine Art – June 2015

2013 – 2014 University of Victoria, Canada

Design, Printmaking, Sculpture and Media Technologies

2012 – 2013 Emily Carr University in Vancouver, Canada

Aboriginal B.C. Art History

2007 – 2013 Vancouver Island School of Art, Victoria, Canada

Diploma of Fine Arts

1981 – 1984, 1985 – 1986 Sprachen- und Dolmetscher Institut, Munich Germany

French and Economics

STATEMENT

I am interested in the amalgamation of abstraction and representation: a liminal space encompassing a fusion of subject disciplines. A few years ago, I started to paint plant-inspired organic shapes. Organic material analysis and
interpretation became part of my exploration process. Simultaneous to my use of organic imagery as inspiration, I began working with oil paints again. Oil paint has a different application regime and can be worked with for much longer, allowing me to create more subtle gradations of colour.
 
Subsequently, I incorporated the plant affected imagery into my
compositions along with the geometric structures that were the mainstay of
my earlier painting direction. My newer works extend organic forms into
abstracted spaces and landscapes that play with depth, lines, and layers. The
work evolves during the painting process. I am interested in creating a push-pull interaction, a lively tension between the features representing spaces, and those that signify shapes as compositional elements.
 
Color impacts how I integrate organic ideas with abstract shapes on the
canvas. During my years of studying fine art, I engaged in purposeful colour theory research. My approach to color is influenced by colour masters and theorists like Itten, Albers, Goethe and others. Colour choice I gravitate to and mix before I start to paint empower the shapes. I work with
flatness and depth both in my shape development, and the paintings’ spatial components. The colour-shape-space decisions energise and
further the paintings’ overall compositions.

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