Viera Collaro

Viera Collaro studied at University of Michigan and Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. The recorded working language is Czech. Work by Viera Collaro is recorded in the collections of Statens Museum for Kunst. Distinctions recorded are Eckersberg Medal and Thorvaldsen Medal.

The daughter of a Slovak mother and a Greek father, Collaro was born in Bratislava, then part of Czechoslovakia, on 30 June 1946. She studied at the University of Michigan and at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Working in the United States in the 1960s, she came under the influence of minimalism, pop art and concept art. In particular, she was inspired by the artists Frank Stella and Robert Rauschenberg while her adoption of neon lighting as an art form was based on the work of Dan Flavin. Her familiarization with Danish culture has stemmed in part from her membership since 1991 of the art groups Ny Abstraktion and Grønningen. Collaro was fascinated by the thriving activity in the city of Copenhagen with all its lights and reflections. The extent to which they influenced her work can be seen in her creations which frequently combine painting, three-dimensional objects and fluorescent tubes. Geometrical figures are also a feature of her work, used either systematically or intuitively. Her 1000 farver (1000 Colours), created in 1979 in collaboration with Niels Nedergaard, has been exhibited in the National Gallery of Denmark's permanent exhibition (2015–16). Collaro is considered a pioneer in the integration of light art and architecture. One of her earlier architectural works is Ringen (the Ring, 1998) on the façade of Kulturhuset (The House of Culture) in Randers. Among her later architectural achievements are light art applications in Aarhus University (2000), Avedøre Kraftværk 2 (2001), the University of Copenhagen (2003), the Technical University of Denmark (2004), Plejecentret Violskrænten, Grenå (2012), and the Danish Security and Intelligence Service, Søborg (2013). Art museums throughout Denmark have hosted her solo exhibitions.