Caroline Ramersdorfer facts for kids

Caroline Ramersdorfer is an Austrian sculptor. She has art studios in upstate New York and Feldkirch, Austria. Her sculptures, both small and very large, are famous around the world. You can find her art in Europe, Asia, North America, South America, Africa, the United Arab Emirates, and the Caribbean.

Ramersdorfer mostly works with marble and granite. She often mixes these stones with steel. She uses light and space in her art to create special feelings, almost like looking inside a physical or spiritual place.

Learning to Be an Artist

Caroline Ramersdorfer first studied philosophy in Paris in 1979. Then, she went to the International University of Art in Florence, Italy. There, she learned about African art history, how museums work, and how to fix old Renaissance paintings called frescoes.

At the same time, she spent two years studying etching. This is a way of making prints, at the Santa Reparata International School of Art in Florence. In 1983, she joined the sculpture department at the Academy of Fine Arts in Carrara, Italy. She earned her Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in 1988.

Her Artistic Journey

After finishing her studies, Ramersdorfer's art career grew quickly. She received grants from the Austrian Ministry of Education and the Arts and Culture. These grants helped her work in other countries. In the early 1990s, she spent time in Japan. There, she learned about Japanese culture and created new artworks. She learned about balance, both in her mind and in her sculptures. She also learned that materials have a special energy.

In 1998, a grant from UNESCO supported her Carambolage Project. This was an exchange program with artists from the Caribbean.

Studios and International Works

In 1995, Ramersdorfer returned to Austria. She set up studios in Vienna and Vorarlberg. Her Vorarlberg studio was in the home designed by her father, the architect Mag. Willi F. Ramersdorfer. For several years, she worked in Asia and Europe on her "Energy" series. She created the "Ring Project" in Fukuoka, Japan, and the "Inner View" series in Vienna.

Since then, she has shown her art all over the world. She has also been asked to create many large sculptures for international art events. Her sculptures are in private and public art collections in many countries. These include Japan, Taiwan, Egypt, Canada, the U.S.A., China, and the United Arab Emirates. In 2005, she won first prize at the Emaar International Art Symposium in Abu Dhabi for her "Inner View" series.

The Inner View Series

The "Inner View" series explores spiritual feelings through sculpture. This has been a main focus of her work for over ten years. One piece from this series, "Seed of Unified Spirit," was chosen for the Olympic Garden for the 2008 Summer Olympics. It is now a permanent sculpture there, facing the Linglong Tower. In 2011, another piece, "Inner View–Open," was placed in the Campus Sculpture Park at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

In 2009, Ramersdorfer was one of 17 artists at the Abu Dhabi International Sculpture Symposium. She was the only woman artist there. She created a huge 15-ton sculpture from white marble. It took her five weeks to finish it.

Ramersdorfer used to spend her summers in the Adirondack Region of upstate New York. In 2009, she moved to the U.S. permanently and now has a studio in Wells, New York.

What Her Art Is About

Ramersdorfer's early sculptures often used rusty steel and granite. These pieces felt heavy and connected to the earth. They showed how she saw modern life.

Artistic Growth and Light

As a new artist, Ramersdorfer visited Japan several times. With help from the Austrian Ministry of Education and the Arts and Culture, she stayed there longer. This time helped her art grow. When she returned to Japan in 1995, her work became lighter. She started a new series that added bamboo columns to stone sculptures. These sculptures looked loose, light, and elegant. They symbolized steps toward deeper understanding and lasting youth.

This lighter style continued for the next ten years. She also started using light as an important part of her sculptures. In her "Light" series (1997-1998), she carved out spaces from natural rocks. She filled these spaces with white neon light. This showed the contrast between solid and empty parts. Her sculptures seemed to float and begin a journey.

Inner Views and Symbolism

In 2001, the Austrian Ministry of Art and Education supported a project called "Inner Views." This started a series of marble sculptures that she still works on today. The idea behind "Inner Views" is to show the hidden details inside a sculpture. She focuses on making white marble show its inner beauty by using light, texture, and grinding. She takes many square marble slabs and puts them back together. This creates complex inner spaces with carved columns and ridges. Just like in her earlier work, light helps turn a physical inside into something almost magical. These sculptures can be small or very large.

Int.Friendship Sculpture Park Urumqi China 2009

Ramersdorfer believes that the person looking at her art is a key part of it. She plans her designs with the viewer in mind, especially how light will be used. Smaller pieces are placed on metal stands or hung to reflect and capture light. With her large sculptures, people can actually walk inside them. This lets them experience how light changes the inside of the sculpture into a spiritual space.

Art experts have described how light and time make her delicate sculptures seem to change and come alive. This adds another layer of discovery to the marble's qualities and its many layers.

Symbolism is very important in Ramersdorfer's work, especially in the "Inner Views" series. As the series grew, she saw the inner carvings as representing an inner world, both physical and spiritual. She called this an "architecture of the soul."

Bridging Cultures

Another important idea in her art is understanding different cultures. She tries to connect cultures to help people be more accepting and understanding. She sees herself as an artist who actively creates connections between art, world cultures, and people.

"Seed of Unified Spirit," finished in 2008, had a global message. Its seven marble slabs represented the different continents and poles. This matched the Olympic park theme of "One World–One Dream." "Inner View Interlocked" (2009) was made for the Xinjiang International Urban Sculpture Symposium in Urumqi, China. It celebrated sixty years of the People's Republic of China. This sculpture also showed the idea of connecting cultures, different groups of people, and human experiences.

New Inspirations

Since moving to the Adirondacks, Ramersdorfer has found new ideas from nature. Her art has become more open and less rigid. Her new surroundings have taught her to see beauty in things that are not perfect. Nature has guided her to create art that is more fluid and surprising.

Her first solo exhibition in the Adirondacks, "Concept Alters Reality," showed this new direction. Her sculptures now burst with energy instead of being cool and precise. Other new works, like "Inner View-Open 1" and "Open Inner View," show pieces of marble breaking apart, like broken glass or melting ice.

In Film

In 2012, a documentary film called Caroline’s Rock was made about Ramersdorfer. It was created by Canadian filmmaker Jim Elderton. The film showed Ramersdorfer as she worked through challenges to get a large sculpture funded and installed in Vernon, British Columbia.

Awards and Recognition

• Golden award, 2006, Renaissance & Rising International City of Sculpture and Cultural Year in Zhengzhou, China.
• Merit award at the international maquette show for sculptures planned for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Park.

Art Galleries

• C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore
• C. Fine Art, New York City
• Galerie Fellner von Feldegg, Krefeld, Germany
• Salwa Zeidan Gallery, Abu Dhabi.
• Allyn Gallup Gallery, Sarasota, Florida

Permanent Artworks and Collections

You can find Caroline Ramersdorfer's sculptures in many permanent locations and art collections around the world, including:

• Dornbirn, Austria
• Hohenems, Austria
• Shimada Art Museum, Kumamoto, Japan
• Yufuin Art Museum, Yufuin, Japan
• Vorarlberg County Museum, Bregenz, Austria
• Eda Garden Museum, Yokohama, Tokyo, Japan
• 5 Ringstone project, Fukuoka, Japan
• Federal Chancellery Artothek, City of Vienna, Austria
• Culture Department, City of Vienna, Austria
• Vernon District Performing Art Centre, Vernon, B.C., Canada
• RAIBA Bank Art Collection, Bregenz, Austria
• Hualien County Cultural Museum, City of Zhengzhou, China
• Beijing Olympic Park, Beijing, China
• International Friendship Sculpture Park, Ordos City, Inner Mongolia, China
• Harmonious Development Sculpture Park, Urumqi City, China
• ADISS: Bridging Society through the Language of Art, Abu Dhabi
• Campus Sculpture Park, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
• Belize City
• Robert T. Webb Sculpture Garden of the Creative Arts Guild, North Georgia (February 2011)

Images for kids

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  Inner View, Vermont marble and Stainless steel, 8'h x4'w x4'd

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  09Inner View to the Bone, marble, 18"h x8"w x6'd

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  Hohenems Skulptur

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  Layers Light Sight 2000, marble, steel, 6"h x20"w x6'd

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  Seed of a Unified Spirit, Beijing Olympic Green 2008

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  materials: marble, bamboo, limestone. 7'h x 2'w x 2'w

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  Inrrer View (detail)