About
Jennifer Nieuwland - born in Milan 1977 is half Italian, half Dutch. She moved to London, UK in 1995 and still lives and works there today. She is an emerging figurative artist.
Jennifer has always been interested in human nature, our multi-facetedness, complexity and hidden depths. She has been inspired by the intensity and more maverick works of Alice Neel, Egon Schiele and Francis Bacon and their ability to transmit deeper psychological nuance.
Her figurative work is a reflection on time and its power and inevitability but also lends thought to our beauty and resilience.
She portrays old people with their younger bodies showing the change in our physical selves and the dichotomy between past and present, while also trying to capture an 'eternal essence'.
Her earlier work displays ambiguous figures suspended, floating in space and time. There is a sense of solitude and transience about them.
"I have painted the figures the size of a baby, to create intimacy and enhance the message of fragility, some are cocooned in what looks like ethereal matter, giving them an other worldly feel."
The backgrounds are often dark representing the unknown while the figures are luminous and somewhat angel/cherub like.
Within her most recent work she has shifted her focus on memories and on the qualities of paint itself. Portraying her interpretation of memories of old people she meets and juxtaposing these to their present selves. The figures and backgrounds are dream like and abstracted, there is an exploration here of what memories are, what is imagined, recreated, omitted or more vivid as well as what paint and other material like gesso, chalk and pastel can do. The narrative is ambiguous and the main character interacts with things or people from the past.
"Memories create a connection between past and present and are part of shaping who we are today as well as being shaped by our history and present state themselves."
The contrast between the memory and the present day face of the subject strengthens the poignancy of the memory and of time passing. Her own memories are playing an increasing role in her work.
Within her portrait work the artist tries to find deeper meaning. Her passion for portraiture stems from a deep interest in people:
"I am inspired by people and their individual complexities and contradictions. I try to capture their inner world often transposing my own onto it."
To bring to life these deep-rooted complexities in her painting, she likes to juxtapose different techniques and uses pattern and sometimes collage to create a richer narrative and visual contrast.
EXHIBITIONS
2018
The ING Discerning Eye Exhibition Mall Galleries 15th to 25th November
Emerging Women in Art at Burgh House Hampstead
Diverse Portraits : A collective at Burgh House Hampstead
2017
21ST National Open Art Competition at BargeHouse Oxo Tower
Emerging Women in Art at Burgh House Hampstead
Sky Arts heat finalists exhibition at the Wallace Collection
2016
Heatherly's Mid-term show
PRESS
2018 Create! Magazine February/March Issue - selected artist
