Wieteke Heldens
Wieteke Heldens works in the medium of painting. She graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague in 2007. She exhibited in the The Hague Gemeente museum, Royal Palace in Amsterdam and internationally in Switzerland, France, Germany, Denmark, South Korea, Belgium and the US. In 2013 Heldens won the Royal prize for Painting in the Netherlands. Heldens is a member of Quartair Contemporary Art Initiatives in The Hague and Flux Factory in NYC. She is represented by Borzo Gallery in Amsterdam, Hans & Fritz contemporary in Barcelona and O-68 gallery in Velp.
“I am consistently inconsistent. I obsessively need the canvas to understand life. In my work I use everything around me but I put these personal anecdotes into abstract concepts. I wish I was like Hanne Darboven or On Kawara, but I’m not. There is often a conflict in my work that needs to be solved and that is why I cannot stop painting. On the first view I make abstract, conceptual work. But at the same time every work is obsessive and compulsive. Rules and mathematical formulas are the starting point, but the impossibility to turn off feelings, thoughts and emotions, prevents that the paintings are too general and distant. With a sense of perspective I use a conceptual process. A recurring theme in my work is to stop and start again. I strive for an almost healing contemplation. This leads to a plastic translation where the sense of order and system is played by chance and sensibility.”
