This is a painting from a series that is in response to the vandalizing and taking down of statues. I have been intrigued by the presence of statues in public spaces for a while and when people started to spray paint them and by other means vandalizing them I felt an urge to respond in painting to these events. Taking the liberty as a painter to recreate and alter these statues on canvas connected me to the crowds responding to history and indirectly created more awareness and reconsideration of the political and social structures for myself. I set out to make a colorful series of paintings in contrast to my usually more chromatic approach.

Jeroen Witvliet

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Jeroen is a Dutch / Canadian artist working mainly in painting and drawing. His practice evolves around finding strong and distinct imagery that addresses a variety of issues and subjects, ranging from history, nature, social and group dynamics, landscape, memory, art history and more. His approach is one of being very involved in his research but also one of allowing for emotions and vulnerability to be reflected in his work. In the paintings and drawings there is a constant push to challenge preconceived notions of the medium but also of the linearity of his practice. Individual work is linked in many ways to the larger output and is part of a meta-narrative. After immigrating from the Netherlands to Canada he moved to Vancouver, BC and from there to Vancouver Island. Jeroen graduated from the Willem de Kooning Academie, Rotterdam, the Netherlands with a BFA, studied film, video and painting at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design and holds an MFA from the University of Victoria , BC Canada. His work has been exhibited throughout Europe and North America and is part of private and corporate collections. Jeroen has had thematic exhibitions based on the research and production of new work after the completion of international residencies and his practice has received multiple Canada Council for the Arts and British Columbia Arts Council Grants.