Wednesday, June 25, 2025

Enigmatic Eventualities Unfold in Levi van Veluw’s Complicated and Confrontational Sculptures — Colossal

[ad_1]



Artwork

#set up
#Levi van Veluw
#polymer clay
#portraits
#sculpture
#wooden

August 17, 2023

Kate Mothes

A woman stands in the center of an art installation made from numerous compartments of identical portrait busts.

“Within the depths of reminiscence.” Pictures by Michèle Margot, courtesy of Galerie Ron Mandos. All photographs © Levi van Veluw, shared with permission

Combining translucent polymer clay with saturated pigments or carving delicate ridges from tulipwood, Levi van Veluw constructs enigmatic, immersive narratives. The Dutch artist has been fascinated by symbols and rituals since childhood, spurred by an upbringing in a non secular family. The complexity and conviction of religion and “the stark visible language of its follow made him delicate to the visible vernacular of spiritual seduction,” reads an announcement for the artist’s sequence Past Matter.

Reminiscence, structure, and storytelling manifests in Past Matter by the portrayal of naves or chapel-like areas, altars, and mandalas redolent of rose home windows. Geometry and repetition work together with mild and shadow in meditative patterns, exploring the parallels of religious expertise and viewing artwork. Van Veluw prompts questions on what and the way we see and our position in finishing the image.

In one other physique of labor, Within the depths of reminiscence, van Veluw explores portraiture and interactions between figures in a sequence of framed reliefs that echo film stills or storyboard frames. And an immersive room stacked top-to-bottom with an identical portraits invitations viewers to face within the middle of a mysterious chamber. Mirrors on the ground and ceiling mirror the partitions and each other, giving the impression of an area that’s each confined and infinite. The artist leaves its interpretation open: Are you in a studio? A fever dream? Contained in the artist’s thoughts?

 

A blue carved artwork depicting a group of people sitting around a table.

“Dinner”

Van Veluw’s makes use of portals, home windows, and the facility of the gaze to ask us into the narrative. “In between,” for instance, depicts an sad household in a automobile, seen straight-on by the windshield. In “Dinner,” an argument has been interrupted, and one topic turns round in his seat to face outward in frustration. “Stared at by piercing gazes, you’re made complicit in a scenario that unfolds earlier than your eyes,” says an announcement. “You might be being checked out, however, in a means, you’re additionally taking a look at your self from the skin.”

An acquisition of van Veluw’s piece “Planetary Chapel” by the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam is scheduled to go on view quickly, and he’s at the moment getting ready solo exhibitions for the Singer Museum in Laren, The Netherlands, and Les Filles du Calvaire in Paris. The artist is represented by Galerie Ron Mandos, and you’ll discover his work in far more element on his web site. He additionally shares updates and wonderful course of movies on Instagram.

 

A green carved artwork depicting a family in a car, viewed through the windshield.

“In between”

A detail of a green carved artwork depicting a family in a car, viewed through the windshield.

Element of “In between”

An art installation made from numerous compartments of identical portrait busts.

“Within the depths of reminiscence”

A detail of an art installation made from numerous compartments of identical portrait busts.

Element of “Within the depths of reminiscence”

A blue, circular artwork that resembles a rose window.

“Round Compound”

A blue, geometric artwork that resembles the outline of an altarpiece.

“Past Matter”

A carved relief portrait in yellow.

“Distinct”

A blue carved artwork depicting a minimal, geometric cathedral nave.

“Divine”

A carved artwork in yellow depicting two figures talking.

“Dialog”

A carved portrait in black of a male figure.

“Abstruse”

#set up
#Levi van Veluw
#polymer clay
#portraits
#sculpture
#wooden

 

Do tales and artists like this matter to you? Change into a Colossal Member at present and assist impartial arts publishing for as little as $5 per thirty days. You will join with a neighborhood of like-minded readers who’re keen about modern artwork, learn articles and newsletters ad-free, maintain our interview sequence, get reductions and early entry to our limited-edition print releases, and far more. Be a part of now!



[ad_2]

Related Articles

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Latest Articles