The Story
Stefanie Hauger has spent her entire life immersed in the world of art and design, having worked in numerous related fields, supported by an upbringing richly peppered with art history, visual arts and antiques and a wide exposure to the international world of art and museums.
Stefanie moved seamlessly from Industrial Design, which she studied at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, to Interior Architecture at Wilson Associates Inc in Singapore as well as her own practice. In 2002 she founded her luxury lifestyle emporium Vanilla Home which, as well as being a platform for a variety of artists including, later, Stefanie’s own work, has been a pioneer in homewares retail in Singapore until today.
She returned to fine art fully in 2011 and today combines her very varied experiences to create paintings and sculptures with a definite wow factor.
Stefanie creates large-scale, bold and colourful canvases which are designed to literally and aesthetically influence the spaces that they find themselves in; to be unapologetically present, physically and spiritually. Her intention and wish for the viewer is uninhibited engagement and interaction with the imagery, allowing it to ‘get under your skin’ so to speak, and thus leading to a deeper dialogue with its complex visual language. Aesthetic conviction and fearlessness are two of her distinctive traits.
‘It’s important not to be precious about what has already been created on the canvas. Always be courageous enough to destroy in order to add depth, tension and new dimensions to a painting. This is sometimes the only way to have a breakthrough’ she says.
Stefanie is utterly committed to pulling out all the stops when it comes to the creation of her works. Using only the finest materials and never compromising on scale or impact, she creates paintings and sculptures that accentuate personality and charm. Stefanie always approaches her work with spatial considerations, creating large-scale works that literally change their surroundings through their bold palette and freedom of expression. Every work of art is seen as a new challenge, and potentially a new direction, which explains the artist’s foray into a variety of styles and voices over the last 10 years.
She enjoys pushing her own boundaries and experimenting with techniques that will open new doors to her artistically and test her imagination. Previously working primarily as a process painter, and rarely using a conventional paintbrush but rather manipulating the canvas physically either through rotation or gravity, she has now firmly crossed over into the narrative and has begun a deep love affair with her, often rather wide, brushes.
Stefanie always returns to the works of Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, Franz Kline and Pierre Soulages for visual and aesthetic influence as well as the powerful canvases of Dale Frank.
In 2013 Stefanie won the prestigious UOB Southeast Asian Painting of the Year award as well as the double win of UOB Singapore Painting of the Year. She then won again in the 2019 UOB Painting of the Year. She has been involved in numerous group exhibitions and fairs and has held five solo exhibitions and a mother/daughter duo exhibition in Germany.
Her work can be found in collections all over the world. She is represented by Curate International in London, Artsy, Miaja Art Collections in Singapore and Personal Space in Manhattan Beach CA.
Stefanie works and lives in Singapore and writes a monthly column for Portfolio magazine about art, design and the quirks of life.