Clean, often oblique lines and smooth surfaces characterize Laurien Renckens’ work. An effective combination of light colours and pastels with fluorescent colours. As a result, your attention is instantly drawn, on a subconscious level, towards these abstract canvasses and panels. Like aesthetic, visual sirens.
For Laurien Renckens, the last few years
have been a journey. Her previous series, Telesma, captured her experience in
making good luck talismans from recyclable material, inspired by her travels
through Kenya. From the bold and bright colours, to the indomitable spirit of
the Kenyan people, Laurien created a series of 99 unique small works on reused
Nespresso cardboard packaging, painted and folded out to make colourful talismans.
For her latest series, Bird of Paradise,
Laurien is returning to painting on canvas, but bringing to the canvas much of
what she learned from her experiences in Kenya and with her Telesma series.
Laurien naturally started developing more figures, but realised that these new creations
deserve to be big. By first creating them out of paper and then rendering them
on canvas layer by layer, Laurien has found a way to bring what she has learned
over the last few years back to her original love, painting. Every line marks a
gesture of renewal, while remaining rooted in what already is. Together they
form rhythms and patterns that seem to move, to vibrate.
Laurien started seeing her new figures as
“vreemde vogels”, a sort of tribute to the oddballs that make life so much more
interesting, with Laurien expressing the uniqueness of people and the “colour”
that they project into the world.
This new series ‘Birds of Paradise’
explores how, what we take in from the world around us, can be transformed into
a presence that radiates energy.
Inspired by new scientific discoveries that
birds of paradise emit secret colour signals, absorbing invisible wavelengths
like ultraviolet and re-emitting them as visible light, each artwork in this
series becomes a presence that radiates its own energy.
These paintings don’t just depict bird of
paradise, they become them; luminous beings that radiate subtle energy. Like
the birds, the works absorb what is seen or unseen and transform it into
something new.
We live in a world that is full of urgency: numerous crises, from the climate to the housing to the refugees’ crises. Because of the internet, we are incessantly informed about everything. Renckens’ work appeals impeccably to those emotions. Her research topic is: what colours and which combinations evoke this sense of urgency? Although urgency may come across as a heavy topic, Renckens’ work is positive and alluring, with bright colours and clean lines. Using as little as possible, she creates a strong image and pulls the spectator towards her, only to hit him with that one single question: what does urgency mean to you?
99 Telesmas
After her trip to Kenya in January 2023, Renckens created a new series of 99 works of art onpaper. It is an investigation into color and form constructed with spray paint and acrylic, inspired by the attitude of the Kenyans. In these works, Renckens examines which colors enhance each other and translates them into a form that radiates strength and authenticity; Telesmas, good luck charms.
A specially designed book of this Telesma series will be published in early 2024 by 99 uitgevers/publishers in collaboration with Project 2.0 / Gallery.
This includes all 99 works and their origins. When you purchase a Telesma work of art, you will receive the publication as a gift.
MEET & GREET | Friday 29 Aug
ART THE HAGUE 2023