 |
| This photo shows sculptor Eja Siepman van den Berg putting the finishing touches to Venus in her studio; an intense, painstaking task requiring the use of a modelling tool that belonged to her grandmother, who was also a sculptor. |
Dutch sculptor Eja Siepman van den Berg (born in Eindhoven, 1943) lives and works in the village of Beetsterzwaag in the northern Dutch province of Friesland. She makes sculptures in bronze and marble, as well as glass. She completed her studies at the National Academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam in 1967, and was awarded the Dutch Prix de Rome the same year. She has exhibited in numerous art galleries in the Netherlands and abroad. This year, she is participating in two interesting exhibitions. She is currently part of a group exhibition of selected sculptors in a prominent gallery in Antwerp, which runs until 17 April. On 2 April, she will be opening a duo exhibition in Grietenijhuis in the Dutch village of Beetsterzwaag with the famous Chinese painter Lu Xinjian, whose paintings complement Siepman's work in an imposing manner, creating a reinforcing effect.
The international exhibition of sculptures, 'Entropie' in Antwerp, Belgium, features works from renowned artists such as James Brown, Jürgen Brodwolf, Geneviève Claisse, Maen Florin, Klaas Gubbels, Ewerdt Hilgemann, Allen Jones, MarkusLüpertz, Adriaan Rees, Eja Siepman van den Berg, Robert Schad en Daniel Spoerri. The 'Entropie' exhibition is devoted entirely to sculptures and presents a fascinating range of free-standing works. The title of the exhibition, 'Entropie', refers to the enormous diversity in forms of expression. Many of the works are abstract and reflect the spirit of the artist in its purest form (Geneviève Claisse, Robert Schad), others came about in part by chance (Ewerdt Hilgemann, Daniel Spoerri) or depict everyday objects in a free-standing manner (Klaas Gubbels, James Brown), and others still offer a personal reflection of reality as experienced by the artist (Mean Florin, Markus Lüpertz, Jürgen Brodwolf).
Sculptures without hands, arms or a head
The Dutch sculptor Eja Siepman van den Berg belongs to the international array of renowned sculptors. She is exhibiting three of her sculptures at Galerie Schoots + VanDuyse in Antwerp. Siepman van den Berg has been creating sculptures of torsos throughout her career. These statues are partial representations of the human form: they have no heads, arms and sometimes no trunks or legs either. Despite the simplicity of their form, they all create a powerful impression of energy or determination in the beholder. The well-known Dutch sculptor has created a lot of torsos in the course of her career. In general, these statues are not created from live models, but are copies of ideal images Eja Siepman has in her head. Her bronze figures have a very dark patina similar to that of the statues preserved from the time of the ancient Romans. Eja Siepman van den Berg explains, "I used to be under the spell of Brancusi, and as a result I took quite an abstract approach at the start of my career as a sculptor. Later on, as I developed, I felt the need to get closer to the forms of the human body, although you never completely lose that penchant for abstraction."
The sculptural language of Siepman van den Berg:
Confrontational human figures, continually subject to the past
 |
| Large Standing Figure (Grote Staande), 1,50 metres. Sculpture positioned in supporting leg pose. |
Steijn Coppejans of Galerie Schoots + Van Duyse in Antwerp, who works together with gallery owner Roland Janssen, is extremely pleased about the select range of prominent international sculptors he's managed to secure for 'Entropie', his special exhibition in the Antwerp port area. Big names, powerful sculptors and a wide variety of materials. That's exactly what Coppejans had hoped for. "All of the sculptors who are exhibiting here create works of a very high standard. In terms of Eja Siepman's work, it's often suggested that it should be viewed figuratively, but it actually goes a bit deeper than that. Eja has created a number of sculptures in her career, which all fulfil the important requirement that they are stripped of personal expression. We ofen speak with our hands and arms, but most of all we speak with our faces. These are precisely the components that are missing from her work." Human emotion, often considered to be expressed using arms, hands and face, is omitted from Eja Siepman's sculptures, which gives way to sculptural expression..
For further information pease visit:
www.ejasiepmanvandenberg.nl or www.galerieschoots-vanduyse.com.
Address of the exhibition 'Entropie':
Galerie Schoots + VanDuyse
Napoleonkaai 15, 2000 Antwerpen, België
Telephone: 00-32- 3 689 13 14
A Chinese painter and a Dutch sculptor:
Lu Xinjian and Eja Siepman van den Berg, tension and tranquility
The Chinese painter Lu Xinjian was born in 1977 and currently lives and works in Shanghai, China. He studied at the Frank Mohr Institute at the Hanze University in the Netherlands and also did a postgraduate course at the Design Academy in Eindhoven in the Netherlands. This talented and much sought after painter has acquired an impressive CV, thanks to a number of solo exhibitions and group exhibitions all over the world (including London, Birmingham, Shanghai, Los Angeles, New York and Vancouver). He has also presented his work at various important art fairs.
Xinjian achieves compositional order and harmony through various modes. His work based on an equilibrium of the relationship between lines, colours and surfaces, takes him towards abstraction. His training as a designer and illustrator takes care of the rest. At the exhibition in Beetsterzwaag, Eja Siepman van den Berg is presenting eight bronze sculptures, which will be accompanied by eight paintings by Lu Xinjian. The paintings are taken from Lu Xinjian's City DNA series, a series of large paintings whose theme is the growth of the big city. These monochrome paintings lend themselves perfectly to accompany the serene, black statues created by Eja Siepman van den Berg.