In Painter's Painters we present three painters who are exploring the medium and pushing its boundaries in different ways. Three artists known for inspiring other painters through their particular way of working: Isa van Lier, Natacha Mankowski and Mirjam Vreeswijk.
These young artists stand in the tradition of painting but use it in their non-conformist way of working. They know the technique so well that they can bend it to their will. For them, a frame is not a border or protection but part of the artwork. And they experiment with their own made paint and explore the boundaries with sculpture and architecture. They give us a glimpse of a new kind of painting.
Mastery of technique
Mirjam Vreeswijk (NL, 1997) uses a variety of painting techniques: taping the canvas, rubbing paint with cloths, putting glints in copper pots in which a reflection of the artist at work can be seen. They are evidence of perfect mastery of the medium. She turns these techniques to her advantage when painting her self-made collages in which reality interweaves with dream and fantasy.
The edges of the canvas
Isa van Lier (Amsterdam, 1996) makes ceramic sculptures, installations, paintings and drawings. With her work she conveys an all-embracing idea of softness and playfulness. Through an universal imagery of shapes and colors, she immerses the viewer in wonder. Her paintings do not stop at the edges of the canvas, her frames also take you into her story. Her canvasses show animated objects such as letters that come to life or forms placed very thoughtfully in relation to each other, to form a perfect harmonious image, as in a Japanese rock garden.
Paintings in the realm of sculpture
Defying the boundaries between different artistic disciplines, Natacha Mankowski’s (FR, 1986) work is characterised by an exuberant use of the impasto technique, through which she creates textural and spatial shapes that moves her paintings into the realm of sculpture. Mankowski takes a keen interest in environmental landmarks and sites such as mines or stone quarries, from which architects and builders collect their raw materials. She uses samples of these materials to create the thick impasto paint that texture her painterly work and question our relationship to the overuse of natural resources.