Marsi van de Heuvel (b. 1987) grew up in her mothers art classroom, with unlimited access to materials and surrounded by books on old masters. She has spent countless hours observing, exploring and practicing. After trying her hand in film photography and finding the practice too creatively restrictive; her innate inquisitiveness led her to study further. She moved on to study Fine Art at Ruth Prowse and was drawn to the constantly expanding boundaries of art, and it’s invitation to examine life. She graduated in 2010, majoring in painting. Despite most of her current work being executed with fineliner pens, van de Heuvel still sees herself as a painter. She approaches the color and layers in her works as if she was working with oil paint; this gives the ‘drawings’ a radiant quality. The subjects of mountains, volcanoes, seascapes, and outer space portrayed in her work, have always contemplated perspectives of who we are and where we are. Van de Heuvel is interested in art as therapy, for the artist and the viewer. Her most recent work of abstract drawings and drawings of and flowers explore our inner, intimate landscape and the beauty and warmth of human connection. Marsi van de Heuvel describes the process behind her new body of work as the performance of ballet that is graceful and effortless but the practice of which is in fact very rigid, repetitive and restrictive. Making lightness and finding internal space within restraints, results in harmony. That is what she attempts with layers of one directional mark making; to create openness and beauty within the struggle.
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Falling is necessary and inevitable. It is generally something we try to resist, but it should rather be welcomed. An alternative way to understand falling, is as an opportunity for change, essential to new growth, and the potential for release. The act of letting go becomes recovery. To practice this surrender, we give up control to give in to mystery. We have to risk losing who we are, to the worthy potential of who we can become.
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Selected solo exhibitions:
2019 Attempts To Think Like a Plant - Nuweland Gallery, Oosterzee-Buren
2018 Transition - SMITH , Cape Town
2016 Ceremony - SMITH, Cape Town
2015 Entanglement - SMITH, Cape Town
2015 Dark Matter II - Rochester Museum of Fine Art, New York
2014 Dark Matter - Tonic, Johannesburg
2013 In Loving Memory - Wolves, Johannesburg
2012 Above and Bellow - 177 Long St, Cape Town
Selected group exhibitions:
2020 Apartment II / The Fourth, Cape Town
2020 Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Cape Town
2019 AKAA Fair - Nuweland Gallery, Paris
2019 Outside, RK Contemporary
2019 Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Cape Town
2018 Rendevous - SMITH, Cape Town
2018 Close encounters - SMITH, Cape Town
2018 FNB Joburg Art Fair, Johannesburg
2018 Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Cape Town
2018 Calabrating Wonder - SMITH, Cape Town
2017 Salad - SMITH, Cape Town
2017 Out of Nowhere - SMITH, Cape Town
2017 Calibrating Wonder - SMITH, Cape Town
2016 From Whence They Came - SMITH, Cape Town
2015 Lineage - Ongaro, Cape Town
2015 Current - SMITH, Cape Town
2019 Attempts To Think Like a Plant - Nuweland Gallery, Oosterzee-Buren
2018 Transition - SMITH , Cape Town
2016 Ceremony - SMITH, Cape Town
2015 Entanglement - SMITH, Cape Town
2015 Dark Matter II - Rochester Museum of Fine Art, New York
2014 Dark Matter - Tonic, Johannesburg
2013 In Loving Memory - Wolves, Johannesburg
2012 Above and Bellow - 177 Long St, Cape Town
Selected group exhibitions:
2020 Apartment II / The Fourth, Cape Town
2020 Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Cape Town
2019 AKAA Fair - Nuweland Gallery, Paris
2019 Outside, RK Contemporary
2019 Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Cape Town
2018 Rendevous - SMITH, Cape Town
2018 Close encounters - SMITH, Cape Town
2018 FNB Joburg Art Fair, Johannesburg
2018 Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Cape Town
2018 Calabrating Wonder - SMITH, Cape Town
2017 Salad - SMITH, Cape Town
2017 Out of Nowhere - SMITH, Cape Town
2017 Calibrating Wonder - SMITH, Cape Town
2016 From Whence They Came - SMITH, Cape Town
2015 Lineage - Ongaro, Cape Town
2015 Current - SMITH, Cape Town
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