Steven Nederveen | Golden Glimmer
Steven Nederveen | Golden Glimmer
May 5-17, 2022
Opening: Saturday, May 7, 2022, 12 PM-3 PM
340 Dundas Street West, Toronto
Bau-Xi Gallery is pleased to present a new body of work by Toronto-based artist Steven Nederveen in the solo exhibition, Golden Glimmer. The exhibition is a showcase of Nederveen’s signature practice, capturing the serenity of northern landscapes, the passage of time through the forest and the spirit of an ocean wave. By blurring the lines between photography and painting, Nederveen develops a magical realism that inspires us to see the natural world with new eyes.
Q&A with the Artist:
Could you speak to the power of color in your work and how it changes/inspires the narrative within a piece?
I’m deeply affected by colour and I am quite specific with it. Colour is a very subjective thing and I rely heavily on the intuition that colour takes us places. They are emotional journeys, specific to each of us but somehow universal as well.
It was Mark Rothko’s work that really influenced me in this regard. His big colourfields are so luscious while also inducing the viewer into transendental states. I experienced his Seagram paintings at Tate Britain when I was in my twenties, backpacking around Europe (as one does after University). Flashback to 1996, sitting in the stillness of the Rothko room, surrounded by huge colourfields that transported me to a profound and lasting feeling of peace unlike anything I had ever experienced. I bring this into my own work with the intention to create a place of solace. Immersed in the darkness of the ocean sky or dancing in the vibrant colours of trees, we are taken to a place where we can reflect.
Many viewers respond to the ethereal light in your work. In a way, it feels as if the light represents a presence or arriving of something mystical. Can you talk about what it means to you?
For me, personally, these golden glows have to do with the healing that comes through being in contact with nature. You don't get to be several decades old without a few bumps along the way, and finding ways to unburden ourselves is key. I find something wonderful happens when I'm walking through the woods or standing at the waters edge, there is an opening of my heart and mind. A significant event unfolds, the letting in of something new and letting go of something old. It is burning the old to come out anew. And so the light is just that. A burning, a letting go and a golden glow of setting free.