Steven Nederveen | Nature Transforms : Experiments in Layered Landscapes
STEVEN NEDERVEEN | Nature Transforms : Experiments in Layered Landscapes
3045 Granville Street, Vancouver
May 6 - 20, 2017
Steven Nederveen's invitation to create a work for the Canadian Consulate in Iceland commemorating Canada's 150th Anniversary has led him to examine his own practice in dialogue with Canadian art for his latest exhibition, Nature Transforms: Experiments in Layered Landscapes. Finding an affinity between his work and the mystical landscapes popularized by Emily Carr, Lawren Harris, and Frederick Varley, Nederveen imbues the theosophic appreciation for the Canadian wildness exemplified by these iconic artists with a new exploration in colour and layering media.
"For this show, in addition to my well-known trees and mountains, I’ve incorporated some groundbreaking new techniques that are used to convey ice and water. I’m interested in the way that water responds to invisible forces around it like, currents, wind, hot and cold temperatures. It’s an element that equally shapes, and is shaped by its environment. I think this has a direct parallel to human struggle and transformation"
Continuing the exchange with Iceland, Nature Transforms includes imagery of Iceland’s breath-taking natural beauty. New abstracted works referencing small cross sections of a glacier pay homage to the cool climate of this northern nation. Nederveen extends the two dimensional painting surface outward by using multiple transparent planes that are raised, painted and cut into. These paintings capture ice in all its fascinating fractures, sediment deposits, and crystal blue transparencies.