Transcending the Tangible
Centred around a real chapel which will highlight the artist’s fascination with religion and human being’s responses to both religion and the idea of ‘belief’. A further theme will be to look at the role of the artist as ‘creator’. An installation accompanies all his exhibitions as the idea of a ‘Gesamt-kunstwerk’ is central to his thinking around each individual body of work.The beauty of churches and the works which inhabit them has held a continual fascination for the artist and caused the impellent need to make a consistent body of works which developed this theme.
For the first time Van Veluw will dedicate a substantial part of the exhibition to his paintings and they will be a revelation to those who have followed his career and artistic trajectory to date. For an artist who has garnished an enviable reputation through his ground-breaking installations, videos, sculptures and drawings, this will enable people to fully appreciate his ability across various mediums. The beauty of his line and the narrative originality of the strange world he depicts adds a further dimension to his already complex universe. Furthermore, the paintings reference the sculptures and vice versa, all the works together creating a sense of a parallel reality; two landscapes show a primeval world yet where the hand of man is still present. Each individual work is multi-faceted which perfectly echoes the complexity found in the great religious works which adorn so many of the churches in Europe. Van Veluw asserts that this richness is fundamental as people need the work to mirror the complexity behind the need to believe.
Artefacts can make that belief ‘real’ and tangible. The idea of alternative or parallel universes is a thematic thread throughout his various projects, although now it is enriched by all the ideas that the human being’s need to believe can create. The sculptures deal with abstraction and can be seen to reference Islamic art in their accent on the abstract in contrast to the paintings which concern themselves with the figurative. In his previous exhibition in the gallery entitled ‘The Foundation’ every work was in black and white; In this upcoming show all the works are blue. In biblical terms, blue signifies the healing power of God as well as being the colour which is most readily associated with the sublime.
Sanctuary, 60 x 40cm | Acrylic on Hahnemuhle paper, Framed, museum glas, black walnut-wood
Study, 96,5 x 65cm | Acrylic on Hahnemuhle paper, Framed, museum glas, black walnut-wood
Landscape with hose, 65 x 137cm | Acrylic on Hahnemuhle paper, Framed, museum glas, black walnut-wood
Landscape with rock, 65 x 137cm | Acrylic on Hahnemuhle paper, Framed, museum glas, black walnut-wood
Relief with water, 96,5 x 65cm | Acrylic on Hahnemuhle paper, Framed, museum glas, black walnut-wood
Covered altar, 92,5 x 65cm | Acrylic on Hahnemuhle paper, Framed, museum glas, black walnut-wood
Wedged sphere, 92,5 x 65cm | Acrylic on Hahnemuhle paper, Framed, museum glas, black walnut-wood
Sculpting matter, 96,5 x 65cm | Acrylic on Hahnemuhle paper, Framed, museum glas, black walnut-wood
Covered Circle, 96,5 x 65cm | Acrylic on Hahnemuhle paper, Framed, museum glas, black walnut-wood
Relief on wires, 96,5 x 65cm | Acrylic on Hahnemuhle paper, Framed, museum glas, black walnut-wood
