Zsuzsanna Ursprung

Your works seem to balance cosmic scale with very intimate, tactile details. How do you usually begin a painting—with a visual idea, a material experiment, or an emotional impulse?

Every painting begins with an emotional impulse rather than a visual idea. Sometimes it is a feeling, a memory or a quality of light that refuses to disappear. Texture, wax, marble powder and genuine gold leaf help translate emotion into something tangible. I rarely know exactly where a painting will end when I begin; like life itself, it evolves through layers, discoveries and unexpected moments.

You work with layered textures, crackled surfaces, acrylic, oil, and wax. What role does physical texture play in your artistic language?

Texture is much more than a visual effect; it carries meaning. Cracks speak about vulnerability, wax preserves memory and genuine gold leaf represents hope, resilience and transformation. I want viewers not only to see my paintings but almost to feel them.

Zsuzsanna Ursprung | Cosmic Flow

Your professional background in radiology involves reading internal structures through CT and MRI images. How has this experience influenced the way you perceive depth, light, and hidden forms in painting?

For more than three decades I have looked beneath the visible surface through CT and MRI. Radiology has taught me that reality always contains another layer waiting to be discovered. Painting allows me to explore that invisible world—not through diagnosis, but through colour, texture, intuition and emotion.

The titles of your selected works – Interstellar, Supernova, and Cosmic Flow – suggest movement, energy, and vast space. What attracts you to cosmic imagery and metaphors?

Whether I look at a single cell or the vastness of the universe, I recognise similar rhythms and hidden structures. The microscopic and the infinite are reflections of the same underlying harmony.

Zsuzsanna Ursprung | Interstellar

Your paintings often shift between movement and stillness. Is this contrast something you consciously seek, or does it emerge naturally through the process?

Life constantly moves between intensity and silence. My paintings follow the same rhythm, balancing dynamic textures with calm spaces that invite contemplation.

Norwegian nature is mentioned as an important source of inspiration for you. Which aspects of the Norwegian landscape or atmosphere resonate most deeply with your work?

Norwegian light, changing seasons, forests and coastline have deeply influenced my work. Rather than painting landscapes directly, I seek to express the emotional experience of nature.

Zsuzsanna Ursprung | Supernova

Having exhibited internationally in cities such as Vienna, Paris, Berlin, Oslo, New York, Hong Kong, and Las Vegas, how has showing your work in different cultural contexts shaped your understanding of your own practice?

Exhibiting internationally has shown me that emotions are universal. People interpret my paintings differently, yet each brings their own story. That diversity of perception is essential to my work.