StandardVision Artist Spotlight: Exploring the Intersection of Divergent Realities with Mirjam Vreeswijk
For the month of December, StandardVision has curated a site-specific showcase from visual artist Mirjam Vreeswijk on view across a number of StandardVision’s large-scale exterior displays throughout Los Angeles.
An artist living and working in Utrecht, the Netherlands, Vreeswijk explores the convergence of divergent realities produced in a space between mirror and mask—both hiding and revealing the subject. Vreeswijk’s paintings contain a characteristic field of tension: they are beautiful and repulsive, dark and cheerful, grand and decorative at the same time. Intangible structures of natural phenomena such as waterfalls, lakes, lava flows and explosions are made tangible and ornamental as they take the form of roses or are held together by a bow. Through this exploration, she creates an atmosphere that is melancholic, uncanny and eerie—yet, wondrous and lovely.
Vreeswijk’s work arises from collages, objects or images that appeal to her. From shiny ribbons, cardboard, fabrics and images to decorative workbooks from the 1970s and 1980s, Vreeswijk draws from an archive of materials to intuitively build her compositions—first in maquettes, then on canvas. Step by step, she discerns what the work needs in order to eventually achieve the ideal composition and structures of paint. Through this way of working, her pieces touche on elements of product photography, still life and landscape painting.
Vreeswijk’s intuitive and subconscious way of working gives the paintings a surrealistic feel, thus inviting the viewer to discover their own interpretation. She creates the feeling of a fever dream, in which images and meanings merge. The reward for letting go is desire, freedom, escapism, unlimited possibilities and a new reality.
Catch works by Mirjam Vreeswijk on view at 3500 6th Street, 888 N Vermont, Courtyard Marriott LA Live, and Melrose Crossing, through December 31st, and learn more about the artist on Instagram.
