Vincent de Beer

My approach to creating art have always manifested itself through the use of strong symbolism, both through material use and graphic content. Inspired by the imagery and emotion found within my dreamscapes, as well by the experiences and characters that shape my life - there is always a tension of t...

My approach to creating art have always manifested itself through the use of strong symbolism, both through material use and graphic content. Inspired by the imagery and emotion found within my dreamscapes, as well by the experiences and characters that shape my life - there is always a tension of the real versus the imaginary, the profane against the sacred, nature opposed to man. It is exactly within this realm where my investigations started to develop an organic free-flow twist, attempting to reveal the dualities and multiplicities of being through colour, form, texture, layering and suggestion, which intends to engage with the viewer in the most raw and honest way possible.

Despite creating mostly with my imagination, I have also explored the more realistic ‘method-based’ approach, yet always with an air of abstraction or symbolic narrative. That being said, I feel that the unplanned and natural progression of making, captures the true essence of my art. It is in the thrill of discovery and exploration that images emerge that go beyond conventional ideas of beauty and rational - playing on the fringes of the grotesque. Through my whole life, I’ve questioned and sometimes challenged cultural and societal norms, ideas and dogmas, which I feel is strongly evident in my work.

The stories of Hermann Hesse particularly captures some of the ideas in literary form, as in Siddhartha and Peter Camenzind, where the protagonists become the embodiment of the passions of existential crisis and search for a spiritual release in a materialistic world. It supports one fundamental personal truth: creativity as a means to myself and my relationship to nature and the outer world. As the well known aphorism by Marshall McLuhan goes, ‘the medium is the message.’