Studio Bern & Venice
Carine Hayoz is a Swiss architect and artist with studios in Bern and Venice. Her work has been featured in numerous exhibitions in Switzerland and at international galleries. In her painting, she combines architectural thinking with a sensitive, open visual language. Her acrylic paintings are inspired by urban spaces. Facades, horizons, and vertical lines emerge, shift, and condense into quiet compositions of light, color, and structure. Even where water or landscape are hinted at, the quiet presence of the city remains palpable. At the center is the human figure in space. Figures encounter one another, linger, pass each other by. In these simple gestures, open stories emerge—fragile moments of closeness, distance, and perception. Thus, painting becomes a place of discovery. Not only do images emerge—we ourselves also come closer to one another. Art invents us.
For a long time, I believed that being brave meant being strong. Not showing any weaknesses. Not showing any doubts. But life has taught me otherwise.
My path to bravery lies in allowing myself to be vulnerable. To soften. To listen to the quiet voice inside me that asks deeper questions. Who am I when I stop pretending? What is real when the noise falls silent?
In my work, I search for this space—a place between strength and tenderness, between structure and dissolution, between what is visible and what is felt. The layers, the open spaces, the traces in the paintings are like moments of life: some clear, some blurred, some unfinished.
I believe we are all searching. Searching for our true selves, for something honest and alive. For gentle beauty. For genuine connection, genuine friendship, genuine closeness.
And perhaps in this openness, we encounter ourselves or one another.
In her article, art historian Maria Becker, a writer for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), describes Carine Hayoz’s visual world as “symphonies of urban spaces.” She highlights how architecture, light, and human figures coalesce into complex relationships in her work, transforming the city into a source of inspiration and energy.
“Every painting by Carine Hayoz is a symphony of urban spaces. Even where landscapes or water appear, the city’s silhouette remains palpable. Vertical structures rise toward the sky as freely abstracted brushstrokes. In her works, impressions of many cities coalesce into emotional memories. Encounters, longing, and loneliness become open narratives that the viewer can continue themselves. The urban environment is not merely a backdrop, but a positive force—a place of inspiration and creative abundance.”
Excerpt from an article by Maria Becker for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung.
