Biography
Marijke Vasey is a Belgian / British artist currently living and working in Burgundy, France. She is a graduate of Goldsmiths College, London, having completed an MFA in Fine Art in 2019. She had previously completed a BA (Hons) in Fine Art Painting at Wimbledon School of Art, and an MA in Critical Theory at the University of Brighton.
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Statement
Marijke Vasey's frame paintings consider the relationship between painting and the decorative. She reappraises the status of decorative embellishment by re-examining the role of the frame in relationship to fine art paintings. By re-drawing this supplementary border within the confines of the canvas, Vasey makes the ornate, yet invisible, support act of the frame the primary focus of her work.
Vasey's influences are drawn from a plethora of sources, from medieval tapestries, Russian religious icons and the borders on illuminated manuscripts to commercial graphics from different eras. These references feed a visual language that has evolved out of a sculptural investigation of the properties of paint. As such Vasey's painted frames are populated by amorphous mouldings, that reference plants, body parts and painted matter itself.
This heady cocktail of influences and imagery is channelled into a painterly language of excess that simultaneously recalls both the painterly flourishes of Rococo and the grandiose gestures of abstract expressionism. This richly ornate, embellished and indulgent brushwork is offset against a seemingly empty void at the centre of the works. As such the painted frames act like an agitant, creeping in from the edges of the canvas, impinging upon the perceived purity of the otherwise monochromatic or gradated colourfields that they surround.
(FR)
Marijke Vasey examine la relation entre la peinture et le decoratif. L'artiste jette un nouveau regard sur le statut de l’embellissement décoratif en portant son attention sur le rôle du cadre dans le contexte de la peinture. Vasey redéfinit la fonction, quasi invisible, de l’encadrement en redessinant cette frontiere supplémentaire à l’interieur des limites de la toile, mettant en relief son importance.
Les influences de Vasey proviennent d'une multitude de sources: tapisseries médiévales, icônes russes, bordures de manuscrits illuminés, ainsi que le graphisme commercial de differentes époques. Ces références alimentent un langage visuel issu
d’une recherche sculpturale des propriétés de la peinture. Les cadres peints sont peuplés de moulures amorphes qui font reférence aux plantes, aux parties du corps et à la matière peinte.
Le cocktail d'influences et d'images est canalisé dans un langage pictural d’excès qui rappelle les fioritures de l'art rococo et les gestes grandioses de l'expressionnisme abstrait. Le travail au pinceau, richement ornemental et embelli, fait ressortir le vide
apparent au centre des toiles de Vasey. En tant que tels, les cadres peints agissent comme agents perturbateurs en s’insinuant depuis les bords de la toile et en empiétant sur la pureté quasi monochromique des surfaces qu’ils entourent.
Selected Exhibitions
C'EST LE BOUQUET! June 2023, Galerie Hyperbien, Montreuil, France. Group show. More info TBA.
"Temple du bon gout" 10th June-10th September 2022. Chapelle XIV, Paris. Sharon Alfassi, Yoan Béliard, Etienne Francois, Aurore-Caroline Marty, Justin Morin, Sabourin Costes, Marijke Vasey, Cyril Zarcone.
Exposition du Printemps. 26th March-12th June 2022. Centre d'Art Le Manoir. Mouthier-Haute-Pierre. Simon Bergala, Virginie Delannoy, Laurent Proux, Mischa Sanders, Marijke Vasey.
Rococo Disco. Solo Show. Le 19 Crac, Centre régional d'art contemporain de Montbéliard, France. 12th February-24th April 2022.
Dionysia. No Man's Art Gallery, Amsterdam. Afra Eisma, Abel Hartooni, Anastasia Kiseleva, Lena Kuzmich, Xavier Robles de Medina, Marijke Vasey. 13th November-19th December 2021.
Jeune Création 71, Fondation Fiminco. Romainville, France, 12-23rd June 2021
Staycation, Barbé Urbain, Vlaanderenstraat 25, 9000 Gent, BE, 15 August-27th September 2020.
Futures 2020: Figurative Art by New Graduates, Mall Galleries, London, 6-18th January 2020
Reflections in Transition, Barbé Urbain, Marlies De Clerck, Erlend Grytbakk Wold, Max Kesteloot, Natasja Mabesoone, Marijke Vasey, Gent, BE, 16th December 2019-19th January 2020
ING Discerning Eye Exhibition - Invited by Charlotte Hodes, Mall Galleries, London, 14th-24th November 2019
Goldsmiths MFA Show, Goldsmiths College, 18-23rd July 2019
A Geography of Interiors, Unit 3 Projects, London E3, Bea Acevedo, Justine Hounam, Clemence Hemard-Hermitant, Lee Maelzer, Marijke Vasey, Carolyn Whittaker, 7-9th June 2019
Gold X, Asquith Gibbes Building, Goldsmiths College, Deptford X, 27-30th September 2018
Bea Acevedo and Marijke Vasey, Unit 3 Projects, London E3, 7-9th April 2017
MFA Interim Show, Goldsmiths College, June 2016
The London Art Fair, GBS Fine Art, Islington, London, 19-24th January 2016
London Painting Survey, Artworks Project Space, Blackhorse Lane Studios, London E17, 10th-20th September 2015
Hannah Brown, Trevor Burgess, Simon Burton, Wayne Clough, Chris Daniels, Sam Douglas, Nathan Eastwood, Geraint Evans, Marguerite Horner, Matthew Krishanu, Lee Maelzer, Katrin Mäurich, Nicholas Middleton, Cara Nahaul, Charley Peters, James Ryan, David Sullivan, Marijke Vasey, Caroline Walker, William Wright
Currently, Adam Hennessey, Norman Hyams, Marijke Vasey, Artworks Project Space, London E17, 25-27th June 2015
Sunday in the Park with Ed, curated by Cedric Christie & Pascal Rousson, Display Gallery, London EC1, 5-29th March 2015
The London Art Fair, GBS Fine Art, Islington, London, 21-25th January 2015
Threadneedle Painting Prize 2014, Mall Galleries, 24th September-11th October 2014
The Getaway, Artworks Project Space, London E17, June 2014
New Paintings, Troubadour Gallery, London, December 2013
Never was there so much wine wasted…so many dead flowers, Terrace Gallery, 4-17 Frederick Terrace, E8, London, August 2008
We found a place...then we drifted apart, Bishops Otter Gallery, Chichester University, 1st-21st June 2006
Outside The Frame, Group Show, Phoenix Gallery Brighton, 21st January-4th March 2006
The Everyday Catalogue, 12 Star Gallery, Storey's Gate, WC1 London, 22-30 March 2006
Grants/Awards
Aide Individuelle à la création, DRAC Bourgogne-Franche-Comté 2021.
Jeune Création 71, 2021. Selected Artist.
FBA Futures 2020. Selected Artist.
Threadneedle Prize 2014. Selected Artist.
Selected Articles/Press
Rococo Disco Exhibition Text by Anne Giffon Selle (in French).
Dionysia Group Show Review at No Man's Art Gallery in Het Parool (Amsterdam Daily Newspaper) by Edo Dijksterhuis.
Rococo Disco Review by Nathalie Desmet in Esse, September 2022
Au 19, CRAC (Montbéliard) : Alexandre et Florentine Lamarche-Ovize, Marijke Vasey, by Marie-Elisabeth De La Fresnaye