Viktor van Bramer

My art making practice formally investigates alternative painting processes that cultivate a state of emotional minimalism. The work is as much about the meditative process it requires to paint as it is about the intricacies of the finished piece. The paintings have a tactile sensuous quality while also suggesting weather patterns, topography in motion, and the slow and steady growth of plants or lichens; the constant change of our physical world in the form of a static object. The final compositions become undulating portals that unravel and coalesce. The unique process is inspired by many years as a florist, constantly arranging and rearranging organic objects. To create a sense of balance, fluidity and movement is of utmost importance.

The "Unstill Life" series references dutch master still lifes. The darkness of the background represents the soil or aether. The brush strokes grow from that seeming nothingness. While they reference my years of practicing floristry, thereby creating a link to arrangements in the dutch still life, they are not static. The objects in the still life are cut from the root and in a process of decay, whereas my forms are meant to suggest continued growth and motion, hence the the name "Unstill Life".