About
Anne-Francoise Potterat
Born in Lausanne, Switzerland
Lives & works in Los Angeles, CA
Anne-Francoise is an artist, yoga/art teacher and Reiki Master. Her multi- dimensional background includes biochemistry (B.A., Barnard College '87), fine arts (B.F.A., School of Visual Arts ’92). She holds certifications to teach prana yoga, kundalini yoga & viniyoga including certifications to teach yoga to children (1997-2000). She trained as a Reiki master (1997-98). She taught art and yoga in private schools, summer camps, YMCA, privately and in groups in NYC (1996-2011). She exhibits the KaleiStars, kaleidoscopic mandalas, and offers workshops around them since 2011, one-on-one and in groups.
Anne-Francoise was born in Switzerland and lived in NYC for 27 years. Since 2017, she has lived in Los Angeles and in Las Vegas. She loves to share the practice of yoga and meditation as she gets to witness the transformation of each attendee from fatigue/stress to reconnection with Source, Peace, Love and Health. She loves to make beautiful images to serve the Creative Being in each and everyone of us. She believes we are infinite beings with infinite possibilities.
To know about my Prana Yoga classes, visit:
Artist Statement
Nature, meditation, kaleidoscopes, the calming power of mandalas and the reverential process of icon painting - the vibrancy of colors, the Invisible, and my quest for our True Self, our true nature, the essence of our Being. All this fuels my work.
I explore a myriad of questions: Can art carry us to the place beyond our insecurities, beyond the challenges and precarities of daily life, to the core of our true nature? Can art calm us, center us and anchor us into the here and now? Can art open the doorway to the field of infinite possibilities? Dr Joe Dispenza, author of several books including Evolve Your Brain: The Science of Changing Your Mind, has shown that when you change your thoughts and your energy, your life and your health change. Can it also be true that art can change your health and your life by interacting with images that resonate with beauty and vibrant movement? These are the questions that initiate the images I create.
My methods include meticulously extracting images from photographs I take on my walks in urban and natural settings. Beginning with a blank page on the screen of my computer, I work from the center outwards, arranging the extracted pieces of photographs and positioning each fragment of photograph to blend with one another, like a drop of paint applied on the surface to achieve a painterly quality. Thus, each image becomes a palette of colors and textures. I approach this work with the same mindset of the icon painter, in a state of awe and wonder, one with the Breath, in reverence of something much greater than myself.
I love to juxtapose images that are usually not seen together to create new unexpected connections, changing their respective dimensions. The great becomes small, the small, big, the mundane sacred.
Each artwork expresses the union of disparate parts into a harmonious colorful whole. The artwork, like the circular map of a mandala, centers you into the stillness within, guides you towards true inner health and anchors you into the dimension that never fluctuates. The artwork can also appear to shape shift like a kaleidoscope when you meditate with it.
Since the artworks are created digitally, they can be printed on a wide variety of surfaces: paper, silk, tarpaulin, plexiglas, lightbox, canvas.
CV
Education
1988–1991 School of Visual Arts, BFA (Fine Arts), New York, NY 1983–1987 Barnard College, BA (Biochemistry), New York, NY
Teaching
From 2017 until now, I teach yoga and organize Creative Meditation Pop-Up Salons.
From 2017 until 2019, I teach meditation at LA Family Housing.
From 2007 until 20011, I share ArtChakraYoga through Artist Access at Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center.
From 1998 until 2011, I teach art and yoga to children and adults in New York City and Connecticut, in private schools (Berkeley Carroll School, Packer Collegiate Institute, Waterside School, Choo Choo Train School), in Brooklyn, NY; at the YMCA; privates and in my space.
Gallery and Artists Assistant
From 1989 through 1998, I work as an administrative assistant for a NYC gallery, Simon Watson; and as an administrative and studio assistants for NYC artists, Christian Marclay, Peter Halley and Mary Heilmann.
Exhibitions
Individual:
2019 "Love Is Who We Are", Namaste Highland Park, Los Angeles, CA 2017 “Liesse”, The Business Habour, Geneva, Switzerland
“Peintures, œuvres sur papier, KaleiStars”, Salle Araucaria, Commune de Saint-Prex,
Saint-Prex, Switzerland
2016 “KaleiStars”, Centre de Soi, Preverenges, Switzerland
“KaleiStars”, Rox & Co, Morges, Switzerland
2015 “The Spiral to Inner Peace, from Fear to Love with Faith“, WIN Conference, Rome, Italy
“The Emotional Way, from Fear to Love with Faith“, Chateau de Bossey, Bogis-Bossey, Geneva, Switzerland
“Étoiles de lumière“, Debiopharm Group, Lausanne, Switzerland
“Joie de vivre“, Castel Bois-Genoud, Crissier, Switzerland
2014 “L’amour, c’est maintenant“, Salon du Mieux-Vivre, Fribourg, Switzerland
“Étoiles kaléidoscopiques“, Farvagny, Switzerland
“Amour et lumière“, Clinique Générale Ste Anne, Fribourg, Switzerland
“Love and Light“, Temple des Pâquis, Geneva Yoga Music Festival, Geneva, Switzerland
2013 “Aime ce que tu désires, désire ce que tu aimes, mandalas kaléidoscopiques/carrés de coeur“, Residence/ Clinique Les Hauts de Genolier, Switzerland
2012 “L’Art d’être présent, mandalas kaléidoscopiques – carrés de coeur“, Insens, Geneva, Switzerland
2012 “BALANCE/PRÉSENCE“, vitrines d’art contemporain, oloap, Morges, Switzerland 2007 “Infinite Bliss“, Lolita Bar, New York, NY
2003 “Expressions of Pleasure“, Dietz Gallery, New York, NY
2001 “Dialogues between Heart and Mind, the way home is“, 7th & 2nd Gallery, New York, NY 2000 “The Road to Santiago del Compostela“, Dietz Gallery, New York, NY
1996 “The Swim Series, Part I“, Galerie Potterat, Lausanne, Switzerland
“Paintings“, Richart, New York, NY
1993 “Symphonies in Tiles“, 55 Vandam Street, New York, NY
Group:
2022 “Le Féminin Sacré”, Centre Otium/Soutien Cancer, Geneva, Switzerland
2017 “Perspectives“, curated by Brenda Harrop, Pacific Design Center, Blue Building,
Gallery B228, West Hollywood, CA
IMD, curated by Artraction, Lausanne, Switzerland
2016 Swiss Art & Design, Geneva, Switzerland
2015 Artraction, La cité du temps, Geneva, Switzerland 2014 Artraction, Geneva, Switzerland
Generali, Nyon, Switzerland
”Space Oddity“, Artraction, Geneva, Switzerland 2012 Car’Art, Crissier, Switzerland
2009 Atlantic Avenue Art Walk, New York, NY
BoCoCa Arts Festival, New York, NY
2007 “Homegrown“, curated by Renée Riccardo, David Krut Projects, New York
1999 “Trippy World“, Baron/Boisanté Editions, New York, NY 1997 “Very Large Array“, Debs & Co, New York, NY
“International Think Dinky“, Modern Museum, Durham, NC
1996 “Open Book, The Fourth Annual Exhibition of Art and Text“, Barnard College, New York,
NY
1993 “The Cadavre Exquis“, The Drawing Center, New York, NY
1991 “Women of the 90’s“, curated by Jeanne Siegel, Visual Arts Gallery, New York, NY
Bibliography
2017 Simone Reymond, “Une explosion de couleurs”, Journal de Morges, Friday January 20
2016 Interview by Virginie Claret, “Les KaleiStars d’Anne-Françoise Potterat”,
La Voix des Femmes, September
Alexandra Budde, “Quand la création digitale tisse des liens avec une vision chamanique”, La Côte, May 25
2015 Kaleidoscopic mandalas: an interview with yogic artist Anne-Françoise Potterat, gatheryoga.com, January 22
2013 SUR • LA • TERRRE
2003 The L Magazine, October 15-28
2000 Ginza, Tokyo, 1, January
1999 Edith Newhall, “Group Shows Not To Be Missed”, New York Magazine, September 13
Kim Levin, “Trippy World”, Village Voice, October 13-19
1996 Edith Newhall, “Anne-Françoise Potterat”, New York Magazine, April 8
Jérôme Ducret, “Le Mot et le Tableau”, 24 Heures, July 6-7
Time Capsule, A Concise Encyclopedia by Women Artists, edited by Robin Kahn 1993 “The Artist’s Life in a Storage Cubicle”, New York Times, Sunday September 12