29 march 2022, Manuela Klerkx
Jonathan Vervoort: ‘You came, you saw, you continued scrolling’
From now until 16 April, the exhibition ‘You came, you saw, you continued scrolling’ featuring the work of Jonathan Vervoort is on display at the Base Alpha Gallery in Antwerp. As long as painting has been around, questions have been asked about the art of painting. Answers are not easy to find, especially in an age when the digital domain is becoming increasingly dominant in our lives and in art. Nevertheless, Vervoort attempts to provide answers in his first solo exhibition at the gallery. Convinced of the human urge for marking, he explores the boundaries between the virtual and the analogue, the past and the present, rationality and expression. Through a series of paintings with a strong digital effect and a number of large, carved boulders that refer to the first cave paintings, Vervoort shows the extent to which digital, historical, virtual and human influences coexist and, consequently, are inextricably linked.
“Our current visual culture consists of an overkill of digital images.
That is a source of inspiration for me.”
Jonathan Vervoort
MK Can you explain what your work is all about?
JVIn my work, I seek out the differences between the presence and absence of tactile elements. This time, I painted all of the paintings without relief, as if the paint had been printed on them. I deliberately do not show any traces of brushstrokes, so that the viewer misses them as it were. We are so used to brushstrokes when experiencing painting that you almost yearn for them when they are not there. I play with such expectations. For example, if you have a completely smooth canvas with only one brush stroke on it, people immediately experience that one stripe as a ‘human touch’. Every civilization, from the Mayans to the Egyptians, started making cave drawings to visually delineate their territory. It’s like saying, ‘This is ours’. Painting and mark making are the same in that respect: they are signs of human presence.
Jonathan Vervoort, Untitled, 2022, Base-Alpha Gallery
MK Is it true that there are graffiti influences in your work?
JV I think the human urge to mark in order to express something is an essential part of graffiti art, but when I was doing graffiti personally, I didn't see that aspect of it yet. It was only after I started painting that I began to wonder why people mark things and was able to place painting in a historical perspective.
MK Can you give an example of this?
JV I am interested in the effect of light and depth in painting. The great masters of the past went to extremes when painting details in a landscape or when creating a portrait. I'm interested in those same details, but within the stream of digital images that pass through our screens every day. I am also interested in using digital programs that allow you to manipulate light and depth. Born in 1995, I grew up with digital media, which to me feel like a normal or logical next step in painting. After all, those digital programs are tools to be used just like brushes.
Jonathan Vervoort, Milk Dog, 2022, Base-Alpha Gallery
MK What inspires your work?
JVMy approach to painting originates from my reflections on the state of the current visual culture and the way in which we look at an image. My paintings with a hazy Mona Lisa and a hazy Milkmaid came about by chance. I was browsing on Instagram and the connection was so bad that I could only see the images very vaguely because the computer couldn't load them completely. In a sort of endless Instagram search, a very vague Mona Lisa appeared with the circle that you see when the computer is loading. I then made a painting that elaborated on that accidentally created image.
MK How did you first come into contact with art: in a museum or gallery or sitting at a computer?
JV I think my first contact with art came through the computer screen. I've also seen a lot of art in museums and in books, but most of it comes through websites, social media and all sorts of other online platforms. Having said that, it is much more fun to see art in real life, but the true is that I see most of it online.
Jonathan Vervoort, Message from above, 2022, Base-Alpha Gallery
MK Do you think that it influences how you look at art?
JV Yes, I think so. Just ask yourself: how long do you look at a painting on a computer?
MK Do you consider yourself a figurative or abstract painter?
JV I think I will always make figurative and abstract work. Sometimes I try to find the boundaries between the two. At times I deliberately paint the same element several times, for example tennis balls on a canvas. And I do that so often – in an ‘error-like way’ – that the figurative elements merge into an abstract composition, losing their meaning in the process as it were.
Jonathan Vervoort, Purple Horses, 2022, Base-Alpha Gallery
MK Let's take a look at the painting with a red, solid background and without any brush strokes and on which you’ve painted all kinds of lines by hand. How do you actually make those lines?
JV I do this using a ‘virtual reality’ program while wearing 3D glasses, so that I am in a sort of digital cube, holding a small remote control in each hand. Clicking on either of these creates remote lines thanks to the computer-controlled program. For example, if I make a forward movement with my hand, a line is created in the depth – i.e. forward – which is not possible with a classical painting. All directions, up or down, to the right or left, can be made using that program. In the cube, I work very expressively, sometimes with my eyes closed. I try to think as little as possible and let my expression run free. This creates those gestural line drawings in which I sometimes also try to put a hidden message. In this painting, for example, ‘evil’ is hidden in it. It also contains a sort of rectangle with a cross that refers to a window. Sometimes I put a lot of them next to each other so that they look like math problems, a bit like in the time of hieroglyphics. That is the historical perspective.
Jonathan Vervoort, Corrupted Evil, 2022, Base-Alpha Gallery
MK The background of the painting ‘Corrupted Evil’ (2022) is painted solid red with slight shades of colour. Do you have a special intention here?
JV That colour gradient is actually a reference to time, like a sunrise or sunset. It suggests moment as the colour intensity shifts from light to dark.
MK Can you name an artist who inspires you?
LV Cy Twombly (1928 - 2011) was breaking new ground with his own kind of written calligraphy that can be seen as a precursor to graffiti. The energy that emanates from his work and the personal relationship to his canvas also inspire me enormously. And when it comes to ‘mark making’, his series of paintings with those large roses on them are the ultimate example: the paint drips off, creating an interplay between fluidity, volatility and gravity, while enhancing the contrast between the verticality of the medium and horizontality of the canvas.
Jonathan Vervoort, The Real Evolution Theory, 2022, Base-Alpha Gallery
LV Actually, I've removed everything human and emotional from them, but I don't rule out the possibility that those elements will return to a certain extent in my future work. I am interested in the balance between the virtual and the human.
Jonathan Vervoort, You came, You saw, You continued scrolling, Base-Alpha Gallery
MK Large painted objects that look like stones or boulders are scattered around the gallery. Do you have a specific intention with these?
LV What you see are rock sculptures made of Styrofoam coated with cement that I have painted with water and ink. I use artificial moss that I bought at a model shop so that they look a bit more realistic. I actually consider these ‘boulders’ as pieces of scenery that give the works an existential layer. I was in Bulgaria last summer, at Beglik Tash, also known as the ‘Bulgarian Stonehenge’, and it made me wonder how those immense, ancient stones got there. What fascinates me is the combination of the virtual reality of the cube on the one hand and the world of ancient, towering stones on the other. These boulders force the visitor to take a certain walking route and I think that is also of added value.
MK What does the near future hold for you artistically?
LV I want to do more research into the combination of paintings and boulders, but with the help of 3D printing.
Jonathan Vervoort, 1995, lives and works in Antwerp and Amsterdam.
