"I was a rather unsuccessful actress and now I polarize people - with art!"
- Hilda Steinkamp
- Nov 12, 2025
- 5 min read
Alexandra Kordas on alternative routes to the Roman gallery "Il Collezionista"
Alexandra Kordas between death and life
"Like a virgin giving birth - that's how I came to art!"
My conversation with Alexandra Kordas in Rome begins with this understatement. She is exhibiting five of her large-format acrylic paintings on canvas in the small gallery "Il Collezionista." The opening is on this warm, late-summer November day.
The gallery blends in almost modestly among unspectacular houses with crumbling facades in the narrow Via Rasella in the Centro, not far from the bustling Piazza Barberini.
and the glossy Via Veneto:
The street – a historical site, in 1944 the inglorious scene of bloody resistance against the German occupiers, culminating in a brutal reprisal by the Wehrmacht on the city's outskirts. The gallery – an internationally renowned venue for interaction between artists and art lovers.
Did she come to art by chance? Not quite. The Munich-based artist has certainly had an inspiring journey: 10 years at a Waldorf school shaped her sensitivity to the creative use of colors, forms, and materials. Experiences in her childhood, career choices, and as a single mother provide her with the material for her artistic expression: in the baroque range between pain and joy, exuberant zest for life and humble certainty of death.
In her insightful introduction to art, Dott.ssa Elena Gradini speaks of "tre principi fundamentali della produzione artistica", of three design elements: "materia, forma e idea".
In 2018, Alexandra's son (now 18) was the catalyst for her creative period. His illness kept his mother confined to the house.
"I had cabin-fever. It was before Corona. Back then, nobody knew what it was like to be stuck at home forweeks on end." "Intuitively, I bought a canvas and paints ..."
"... and painted my first picture. It even sold, and I thought, oh what's happening here, and kept painting, really just for myself."Elena Gradini explains: "Art, understood as therapy, conveys a psychological and physical sense of well-being through color and the rhythm of forms and images." For both artist and viewer.
But art seeks the public eye, wants to contribute to social discourse. Alexandra Kordas' paintings quickly provided fodder for conversation, among friends and in the familiar polarity between acceptance ("Wow, that's amazing!") and rejection ("So much death and crosses, we don't even want to look at that.").
"The cross is nothing religious to me."
It runs through the artist's painterly oeuvre, not as a profession of faith in the Christian religion, but as a symbol of suffering, shame, violation, and harm—injuries inflicted by one person on another. But also as a sign of hope and healing.
"I just wanted to process my pain using my own methods." Especially in her early phase, crosses, bones and skulls are therefore part of Kordas' artistic style.
"My art aims to enlighten."
She has since overcome this dark phase in her artistic expression and turned more towards joy and light. Nevertheless, her art is not an end in itself, not an art-for-art's-sake pursuit. Alexandra Kordas continues to focus her gaze on the defects in society and designs her paintings to guide the viewer's attention. Kordas's art aims at shaking people up, making them oppose war, child abuse, violence against women, and social injustice. Complementing this, she also creates artistic projections of joy in life and hope for redemption.
Her artistic journey is captured in the exhibition catalogue with the fitting title From Darkness to Light :
La Pace Conta - Peace Counts
The exhibition title is Alexandra's declaration of faith in the bright side of life - which, however, must be fought for.
And so her gallery exhibits comprise a changing rhythm from Peace (2018) and Pain (2019) via The Big Bang ( 2023) to Recurrection ( 2023 ) and Damnation ( 2024 ).
Even her most recent painting, Damnation, is not the thematic endpoint of Alexandra Kordas' artistic career. The glimmers of light in the color composition of this somber painting are too bright, her creative drive is too strong, her affirmation of life too joyful despite all its shadows.
Her 2025 exhibition in Madrid, titled Disruptive Harmony, overflows with vitality despite painful disruptions and the need for revolutionary change. Here, the artist works on a wall-sized scale.
"In painting I can be authentic"
"Here I can be true to myself, unlike in acting, where I had to play a role."Alexandra finds her alternative path to painting through acting and scriptwriting. She doesn't always experience societal recognition at first.
"In Munic, I organized an exhibition myself, and it went really well. A lot of people were interested and they asked me where I had studied. I told them I was a self-taught painter. 'Ok, bye then', was the response. That's how it works in Munic.""A friend of mine paints in a way that sells. She does it for publicity. I don't give a damn."
With self-confidence, ingenuity and hard work, the artist gains access to a wider audience.
"Of course I have to push myself, but I can be true to my own self." With the help of friends in designing a website, she also gained international recognition. The gallery "Il Collezionista" and the artist discovered each other on Instagram.
"I had absolutely no contacts in the art world at first."
"But as soon as I got to the door, or even before I got there, it was already open." Alexandra's acceptance into the art world was unconditional, especially abroad. However, the lack of references and the absence of years of study or apprenticeship with renowned artists posed barriers for her in the domestic art market.
"In Munic, all that counts is status; people are so mainstream there. That may sound simplistic. But it's not. I do love Munic, but artistically, this is not my city."
The irony of an artist's fate: The Kordas
Oktoberfest editions are highly valued and traded in galleries in Madrid and Buenos Aires. The artist also lives overlooking the Munich Oktoberfest grounds.
Alexandra has consistently found open doors in the international art scene. This year alone, her exhibitions have been crowd-pullers in Venice, La Paz, Madrid, and Medinaceli (Spain).
Nevertheless, Rome has almost become an artistic home.
For the second time this year, the Galleria opens its doors to Alexandra.
Dott.ssa Elena Gradini provides the art expertise. Gallery owner Dott. Gabriele Giuliani brings together artist, artworks, and art lovers, and also handles the catering.
My InterNations family and other guests are an alert audience and readily connect with the artwork and the artist. In the paintings, we search for the narrative the art critic speaks of, as Alexandra translates her ideas into matter and form through brushstroke, telling iconic stories.
Grazie, gentle critic and history of art and gallery
a "IL Collezionista",
per un gioello di mostra
&
arrivederci, Alexandra Kordas,
alla Biennale Arte
di Venezia
in 2026!
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