My work as a visual artist primarily consists of creating paintings, although I also produce drawings and prints. I paint with oil on canvas and other surfaces, such as cardboard packaging glued together, and occasionally on other materials like file folders and painting palettes, depending on the project. I see myself as a representative of contemporary painting, with a distinct style and thematic focus.
I paint in a figurative and recognisable manner, but not overly realistic, and certainly not unequivocal. In my work, I develop a personal mythology by using everyday life as a starting point and context for inexplicable phenomena. It is these more or less supernatural occurrences that manifest in life to which I open myself—not only in my own experience but also in how they occur in others and how they reveal themselves in their interactions with me.
My paintings are less about depicting an inner world and more about revealing inexplicable phenomena that are intensely felt by myself or others. These are primarily emotional experiences that are hardly visible in reality, yet take on a tangible form in the imagination. The key is to keep the depiction credible and avoid creating vague ‘meta’ paintings.
Alex de Vries © 2020
