Marjolein van Haasteren Dutch, b. 1967

Marjolein van Haasteren (1967, Leiden) studied at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. Her consistent oeuvre reveals a surreal landscape. Fluid and transparent images. Her work looks attractive and spacious. Images that loom up and disappear. Almost surreal, like images we see out of the corner of our eye, on the edge of consciousness.

Clear lines and contours emerge from a turbulent background. Anyone who sees Marjolein van Haasteren's work steps into another world. A world so unique and capricious that the laws of everyday life do not seem to apply. Her surreal works are preceded by a period of research. Plant and leaf shapes are carefully studied and find their way onto the canvas. In her paintings, you see organic order, movement and proliferation, displacement and tranquillity. Penetrating lyrical works, where lush growth and harmonious stillness go hand in hand.

Van Haasteren paints her landscapes in a sketch-like style and with muted colours. The large ink lines she once had to draw during her calligraphy lessons at art school have ultimately gotten under her skin. Water is a recurring element for Marjolein van Haasteren. As a painter she moves both below and above the surface of the water.