Natalia Koren Kropf 

Natalia Koren Kropf is a classically trained interdisciplinary award-winning contemporary artist who combines art and science in various studio media. She explores current topics of change in climate and society and the eternal themes of light and movement.

 

Born and raised in St.Petersburg, Russia, into a family of artists, Natalia has studied at the St.Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts. Her formal studies started at age 11.

During these forming years, she had absorbed the European cultural traditions and the old masters school of painting and drawing, enhanced by the community of artists and professors at the Academy. The literary circles and scholars, the collection of the Hermitage, and other great museums were also significant influences on her growing up and everyday living in St.Petersburg with its architectural splendor and cultural enigma. Unfortunately, her studies were interrupted by a political crisis in 1991. Her family was able to escape to the United States.

 

Upon family relocation, to New York, she embraced its contemporary art scene. She graduated from Parsons School of Design and was offered a position as a drawing teacher there, while independently studying at the School of Visual Arts, and the Art Student League, experimenting with mixed media, and printmaking.

Natalia has 30 years of continuous exhibition history, as seen in her resume.

 

Natalia's having her own family enriched her art journey. Initially, she opened her studio to friends and families of her children, and soon enough Koren Kropf Studio was opened for classes for the next 17 years. Natalia invented a unique method of working with small groups of children. She created a challenging curriculum for teens, many of whom got accepted into specialized High schools' and later top colleges, such as Columbia, Rhode Island School of Design, and SVA, due to the superb quality of their art portfolios. Her daughters are students at the School of Visual Arts, majoring in Animation.

 

Natalia was always drawn to the invisible world, she undertook a spiritual journey, which manifested in a shifting focus on ecology in her artworks, and two diplomas, one from the Kundalini Research Institute (KRI) as a yoga instructor and another from the International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT). Natalia has offered classes at her creative studio to suit the individual goals of the students, combining Yogic principles with self-expression in a holistic form of Art therapy.

 

In 2018 Natalia was elected as President of the National Association of Women Artists (NAWA), the oldest American Art organization founded in 1889, by women artists for promoting and educating women artists, www.thenawa.org.

During the tumultuous years of the Pandemic, she re-directed all operations online and established new virtual routines: monthly exhibitions, including the first-ever 131st Annual Members’ Exhibition, educational programs such as Art in Conversation with Farrin, and monthly members' Zoom conferences Noon with NAWA, especially the remote office protocols as early as May 2020. Due to the real estate crisis in Manhattan, NAWA headquarters had to relocate. With the assistance of an honorary member, Natalia negotiated a lease at the National Arts Club at Gramercy Park South. She personally participated in a moving day during the December holidays in 2020. After her Presidential term, Natalia remains on the Board of Directors.

 

The lockdown times allowed Natalia to combine her presidential duties with prolific creativity in her studio. She started a new series Inner Spaces, based on her experience of limited social interactions. The series includes large-scale abstract drawings, paintings, and sculptures, two of which received merit awards in 2021-22. She continues to add sculptural forms to her works, depicting the interconnectedness and harmony of all the elements of life. Natalia is an avid supporter of a sustainable lifestyle and eco-clean art practice.

 

COLLECTIONS:

Works in private collections in Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Greece, Cyprus, Finland, Russia, Japan, Lesotho, Argentina, Chile, and the United States.

 

AWARDS:

2022 Allied Artists of America for Bronze Sculpture

2021 Certificate of Excellence for Painting at the Empirical Abstraction Show

2020 Selected one of the Top Ten Artists in Wide Walls international publication.

2019 Celia Kaufman Memorial Award For Innovative Ceramic Sculpture

2018 NAWA Certificate of Excellence Award in Photography

2016 Jean M. Leeman Award for Printmaking

2014 Esther C. Gayner Memorial Award for Printmaking.

 

PUBLICATIONS:

2023 Featured in Art Business News by Redwood Group. New York Art Expo

2023 Sanctuary Magazine. Interview with Editor. By Myrna Haskell.

2022 Allied Artists of America. 109th Annual Award Winners Catalog.

2021 Elysian Magazine. Unique Feature on NAWA by Suzanne Johnson. Atlanta, GA - New York, NY 2020 Top Ten Artists. “Focus Blue” Feature on Wide Walls by Balasz Takasch

2020 National Association of Women Artists Magazine. “Red Carpet feature”, NYC

2018 The High Brow Magazine. “ Celebrate Women” By Sandra Bertrand, NYC

2011 “Together”. Exhibition Catalog. New Century Artists, Chelsea, NYC

2010 The Art Times. “International Women Artists” in Highland Art Center, Beacon, NY

 

MEMBERSHIPS AND AFFILIATIONS:

National Association of Women Artists, Inc., Board of Directors

Allied Artists of America, Elected Member

Art Students League of New York, Member

Art Plexus, art collective core member

Monotype Guild of New England, Cambridge, MA

Koren Kropf Studio, Owner Aquarian Woman Art Project, Founder

Art Completes You, Amazon Bestser Self-Help, Project Collaborator, and Contributor

Global Art Project for Peace International Exchange, supporter and participant

The New School For Social Research University, Alumnae.