Vanesa Van Vlerken

I consider drawing to be fundamental to my work. My paintings start as small line drawings that are then enlarged until the line becomes a presence to which the spectator can relate.
Crash
(107x137cm)
Full-body shot
(2 each 70x50cm)
Hanging
(85x116cm)
There are two main aspects to my paintings. Firstly, there is an exploration on mark-making as a means to convey a large amount of information regarding speed, weight, register, temperament and so forth, in minimal terms. The fluid drawings in the paintings have an anecdotal quality: in one of them a line seams to have just snapped and it is portrayed in the resulting inertia; another is about to crash against the edge of the canvas. The drawings allow for personalities which range from the animated and melodic to the solemn and astringent.
Vanesa Van Vlerken
In between
(3 each 60x50cm) £1400
London
(107x137cm)
Monster flowers
(70x50cm) £430
Secondly, there is an investigation on the theory of colour. Each pair of colours used in each painting has been chosen because they potentiate each other producing an optical effect in which the boundaries between the colours appear to fluctuate, making it harder to define contours thus producing the illusion that the line is flickering. This effect is pushed further as they are all line drawings, so it is not only the boundaries that are affected but also the whole drawing hovers before the canvas.
Vanesa Van Vlerken
Myca ii
(107x137cm)
Shadow overestimated
(90x70cm) £620
Wired up
(69.4x49.5cm) £530
The plane becomes a space in which the energetic and accurate movement of the line is captured in this intermittency and remains suspended in from of the canvas.
Vanesa Van Vlerken
Untitled 3
Untitled 4
Untitled 5
Untitled 5b

Vanesa Van Vlerken's CV

Education
2003-2005 BA (Honours) Fine Arts Painting. City & Guilds of London Art School, London
2006 to date Diploma in Graphics and Multimedia   LTC College London
1999-2002 Bachelor in Visual Arts. IUNA (National University of Art). Buenos Aires
  Private tuition with Guillermo Cuello, Buenos Aires
1995-1998 Legal Translation English - Spanish, UBA (University of Buenos Aires)
Exhibitions
2006 Group Show, Lennox Gallery, London
2006 Islington Art Fair, Candid Arts Trust, London
  Colour Matters, Group show, Chapel Gallery, Lancashire
2005 Graduate Show, London
2004 Bang, Group show, London
2000 Group Show, Buenos Aires
1999 Group Show, Buenos Aires
Prizes and awards
2005 Till Art History of Art Award (BA Honours. Thesis on the use of handwritten gestures in painting in the last century)
Collections
2005/2006 Private collections in UK and Argentina
2005 City and Guilds Institute, London