tegenboschvanvreden is very pleased to present a duo presentation of Marenne Welten and Lieve Hakkers at Art Rotterdam 2024. They are two painters with very distinct styles, yet also sharing themes of personal vulnerability and intimacy.
Marenne Welten (1959, Valburg, NL) is first and foremost a painter. Painting is her palace and her memory is her artistic kingdom. She travels to the furthest corners of that realm, in search of thoughts and memories and the images contained therein. A mental image produces an idea for a work, and then that image is conjured up from the material in an almost sculptural way while painting. Intuition and associations are at the helm, but always under the critical eye of the painter who allows images to emerge or sink into the layers of dark and light oil paint. Welten plays with light, color, movement, depth and scale. Her themes are connected to memories of her youth, family histories, or thoughts about the world around us, but take on a recognizable, universal meaning in the form of painted fiction.
For years Lieve Hakkers (1996, Oldenzaal, NL) painted no figures, but once she began making her own (tempera) paint, they gradually found their way back into her work. She produces paintings and drawings that deal with the language of the image, the power of the painterly image that slowly unfolds before our eyes. Hakkers: "I've always painted and drawn the people around me, but just in passing. Many paintings, drawings and a few poems are about lovers and friends. There are mainly objects and an occasional figure, a face, a couple or a kiss. At Art Rotterdam we show drawings and paintings by Lieve Hakkers in which her observations of daily life are spotlighted. Her free and experimental way of working produces images that are a beautiful expression of the human condition.