Nelleke Beltjens

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Nelleke Beltjens (born November 18, 1974 in Roermond ) is a Dutch sculptor and draftsman .

Life

From 1992 to 1996 Nelleke Beltjens studied art at the Academie voor Beeldende Vorming in Tilburg , from 1997 to 1998 at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb and from 1999 to 2001 at the University of California in Davis (California) . Since 2001 Nelleke Beltjens has been living and working as a freelance artist in different locations both in the USA and in Europe. From 2007 to 2011 she taught as head of the sculpture department at Montana State University in Bozeman ( Montana ).

plant

Influenced by sculptors such as Carel Visser and Joachim Bandau , Nelleke Beltjens developed a clear language of forms for her minimalist sculptures as a student. The early works were mostly made of steel and with their house-like shapes show a clear reference to the architecture . During her first stays in the USA, she expanded her sculptural vocabulary and experimented with unusual material compositions such as steel and concrete , wood and plaster , etc.

As a sculptor, Nelleke Beltjens declined to present her work on pedestals and always placed her work on the floor, often as multi-part installations .

Nelleke Beltjens, Complex 3, 2006, ink pen on paper, 93 × 157 cm

In 2005, Nelleke Beltjens turned away from sculpture and since then has been working with mostly large-format, often multi-part ink pen drawings. As a reason for this change of media, Beltjens referred in an interview to the complexity of life, which can be better addressed in the medium of drawing: “How can I keep making minimalist sculptures when life is so extremely complex?” - “How can I continue To make minimalist sculptures when life is so extremely complex? "

Her first, five-part series of drawings entitled “Complex” (2005/06) shows dense clusters of lines in dramatic light and dark. In the series that followed, Beltjens used a technique in which she placed short lines on the drawing sheet across the edges of a piece of auxiliary paper. In this way, the lines are broken down into the smallest of markings that are perpendicular to the course of the line. The superimposition of innumerable lines creates extremely complicated structures that are overwhelming to perceive.

Nelleke Beltjens, Irresistible non-solution 11, 2013, ink pens and textile tape on paper (partially cut up and reassembled), 56 × 76 cm

In series such as “Uncut” (2009), “Shift” (2009) or “Apparently”, parts of the drawing sheet are cut out, used as auxiliary paper for drawing and put back in their original place. In this way, a second complex network of cutting lines is created in addition to the one drawn. Since 2013, a third visual level has been added to the drawings with (mostly red) textile adhesive tapes, which are subjected to the cutting process and accordingly fragmented.

Nelleke Beltjens' drawings are created exclusively while listening to mostly classical music. Her intention is to achieve a feeling of the intangible, comparable to music: "I'm interested in the ungraspable [...]" - "I'm interested in the intangible [...]".

Exhibitions (selection)

Solo exhibitions:

  • 2013 Irresistible non-solution , Galerie Christian Lethert, Cologne
  • 2011 They don't know either , Galerie Christian Lethert, Cologne
  • 2010 Immense , Leverkusen Art Association
  • 2009 Apparently , Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco
  • 2009 Fragments of the Parts , Galerie Christian Lethert, Cologne
  • 2003 Seeking Subtleties , Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco
  • 1999 Solidified Thoughts , Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco

Group exhibitions:

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ “Nelleke Beltjens. Interview with Peter Lodermeyer, May - September 2009 “, in: Peter Lodermeyer, Karlyn De Jongh, Sarah Gold (eds.): Personal Structures. Time - Space - Existence , DuMont Verlag, Cologne 2009, p. 298.
  2. ↑ “Nelleke Beltjens. Interview with Peter Lodermeyer, May - September 2009 “, in: Peter Lodermeyer, Karlyn De Jongh, Sarah Gold (eds.): Personal Structures. Time - Space - Existence , DuMont Verlag, Cologne 2009, p. 301.
personal data
SURNAME Beltjens, Nelleke
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch sculptor and draftsman
DATE OF BIRTH November 18, 1974
PLACE OF BIRTH Roermond