DEBRA VAN TUINEN
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Debra Van Tuinen Paintings
Debra Van Tuinen and the Marks of Time by John Austin Debra Van Tuinen’s time-based paintings which are produced in a spirit of experimentation and sensitivity to the flow of gravity continues the tradition of Modernist painting and the color-field imagery. Her inspired conception points to both a repudiation of the virtuosity of execution while it celebrates great declarativeness, and the clarity of a wholistic vision. A sense of purpose in Van Tuinen’s work might lie in its capacity to remind us as viewers that the concept of this type of expressive abstraction is not the conceived in and of itself; it is instead what it is said of it a posteriori, after the work is finished. The intuitive aspect of the artist’s artwork is paramount as its quality rests on that intuitive factor. The quality of the work also rests on the thing conceived as it is being conceived. Debra Van Tuinen’s work is exceedingly time based: from the application of her materials, which include oil, encaustic and silver leaf, to the drying time of the materials on raw canvas and wood. This is process-painting of a certain kind as it is a type of Action Painting whose colorful skein-like patterns are both elegant and strident. The rivulets of paint which are allowed to flow across the pictorial plane and allowed to pool and eddy can but have natural and organic sensations. A flow of water or clouds causes the colors and patterns to undulate with pulsating rhythms. Whispered sounds vibrate the tympanic membrane, inducing a shift in the air transforming its movements into electrical waves. In looking at Van Tuinen’s sensitive works one could easily infer non-objective patterns which are representations of the tracks of subtle transferences of energy between gentle geologic forces and natural bodies. Artist’s regulatory aesthetic impulse is to sensitively intuit where she wants to go without any prearrangement. This laissez-faire aesthetic dance impulse allows her to respond to her materials and to see what those materials can actually do instead of making them do anything. The result is an artist sharing with us what she has learned from paints intelligence and nature. Each of Van Tuinen’s work is good to look at, both in close and far away; they have subtle shadings and contrasts and project both an aura of calm and an inner light. John Austin is an art writer based in Manhattan.
Debra Van Tuinen Paintings
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Alizarin Orange Sky, 2013, encaustic and oil on raw canvas and wood, 42” x 42”
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Debra Van Tuinen Paintings
Skyscrape I, 2013, encaustic and oil on raw canvas and wood, 42” x 42”
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Orange Falls, 2013, encaustic on gold leaf over canvas and wood, 20� x 20�
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Debra Van Tuinen Paintings
Skyscape V, 2013, encaustic and oil on Raw canvas and wood, 42” x 42”
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Skyscrape II, 2013, encaustic and oil on raw canvas and wood, 42” x 42”
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Debra Van Tuinen Paintings
Skyscape Reflection, 2013, encaustic and oil on raw canvas and wood, 42” x 42”
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Skyscape IV, 2013, encaustic and oil on raw canvas and wood, 36” x 36”
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Debra Van Tuinen Paintings
Cerulean Sky, 2013, encaustic and oil on raw canvas and wood, 42” x 42”
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Skyscrape XI, 2013, encaustic and oil on raw canvas and wood, 42” x 42”
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Debra Van Tuinen Paintings
Cerulean Falls, 2013, encaustic / silver leaf on canvas and wood, 20� x 20�
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Skyscrape III, 2013, encaustic and oil on raw canvas and wood, 40” x 40”
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Debra Van Tuinen Paintings
Falls, 2013, encaustic and oil on raw canvas and wood, 40” x 40”
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EDUCATION MFA - University of WA Seattle, WA Double Major: Drawing Norman Lundin Printmaking Glen Alps and Bill Richie, BFA - Hope College, Holland, MI Byam Shaw School of Art London, England SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2013 2012 2010 2009 2008 2007 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1992 1990 1989 1988 1986 1984 1980 1979 1978 1977
Christine Klassen Gallery - Calgary, AB (April) New Art Center - NYC NY (May) Petley Jones Gallery - Vancouver BC (May) Butters Gallery - Portland OR Van Tuinen Art - Olympia WA Butters Gallery – Portland, OR Artworks - Vancouver BC Washington Center - Olympia WA Summit Fine Art Banff – Canada Artworks- Vancouver, BC Butters Gallery – Portland, OR Summit Fine Art Banff – Canada Artworks- Vancouver, BC Butters Gallery – Portland, OR Butters Gallery – Portland, OR Kimzey Miller Gallery – Seattle, WA Gallery Gora – Montreal, Canada Artworks Gallery – Vancouver, BC Elizabeth Edwards Gallery – Palm Springs, CA Butters Gallery – Portland, OR Kimzey Miller Gallery – Seattle, WA Kimzey Miller Gallery – Seattle, WA Elizabeth Edwards Gallery – Laguna, CA, Palm Spring, CA Butters Gallery – Portland, OR Santa Fe Contemporary Art – Santa Fe, NM Butters Gallery – Portland, OR Kimzey Miller Gallery – Seattle, WA Butters Gallery – Portland, OR Butters Gallery – Portland, OR Butters Gallery – Portland, OR Phillip Brock Gallery – Seattle, WA Paccar Corp. – Bellevue, WA Marianne Partlow Gallery – Olympia, WA Pacific NW Bell – Seattle, WA Lynn McAllister Gallery – Seattle, WA Hope College – Holland, MI Grand Valley State College – Grand Rapids, MI Muskegon Community College – Muskegon, MI Kalamazoo College - Kalamazoo, MI
2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1988 1987 1986
1983 1976 1974 1973
Miami Red Dot Show (Butters Gallery) Artprize - Grand Rapids, MI ( top 75 ) Robert Daniel Gallery, Tacoma, WA Butters Gallery – Portland, OR Miami Red Dot Art Works Gallery – Vancouver, BC AAF – New York City, NY AAF – New York City, NY Florence Biennale – Florence, ITALY Palm Springs International – Palm Springs, CA Gallery Ochi – Sun Valley, ID Elizabeth Doyle Gallery – Maui, HI Art 21 International Show – Las Vegas, NV Santa Fe Contemporary Art – Santa Fe, NM Agart World Print Exhibition – Bled, Slovenia Facet Fine Arts Center – Taos, NM SITE Santa Fe – Santa Fe, NM Seattle Art Fair – Seattle, WA Seattle Art Fair – Seattle, WA Portland Art Museum – Portland, OR Butters Gallery – Portland, OR van Straten Gallery – Chicago, IL van Straten Gallery – Chicago, IL Centrum Print Show – Seattle, WA Whatcom Museum of Art – Bellingham, WA Shoshanna Wayne Gallery – Los Angeles, CA van Straten Gallery – Chicago, IL WA State Pavilion Expo – Vancouver, British Columbia Northwest Print Council – Portland, OR Henry Museum MFA Show - Seattle, WA Joslyn Art Center - Omaha Nebraska Hope College BFA Show- Holland, MI
SELECTED COLLECTIONS: INTERNATIONAL Art in Embassy Doha, Qatar The Village Vancouver BC L’ Hermitage Hotel Vancouver BC U.S.A. State Department: Ten International Offices Imperial Bank of Canada Chicago Offices Kanda Art Gallery Tokyo, Japan Winsor Park Hotel, Taiwan Nordic Research Group Vancouver, BC Intrawest Vancouver, BC Keg Restaurant Vancouver BC, Calgary, Montreal, Austin TX Bison Bistro Banff, Canada Commonwealth Insurance Company Vancouver BC PHSA Vancouver BC
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
SELECTED COLLECTIONS: NATIONAL
2012
Hilton Hotels Hyatt Regency Hotel Bank of America Heritage Bank The Olympian - Olympia, WA Dancing Goats - Olympia, WA Intrawest - California Mitsubishi – Portland, OR Seattle First National Bank – Olympia, WA
2011 2010
LA Affordable Art Show - January Weiss Gallery - Calgary, Canada Projects Gallery - Philadelphia, PE Petley Jones Gallery - Vancouver BC Elevations Gallery - Canmore AB Broadway Gallery - New York City, NY Miami Basel Show - Nina Torres Gallery - Miami, FL LA Art Seen - Los Angles, CA
Kaiser Medical – Portland, OR Security Pacific Bank – Seattle and Olympia, WA Association of Northwest Gas Utilities – Portland, OR Nordstrom – Seattle and Bellevue, WA Paccar Corp. – Bellevue, WA U.S. West – Seattle and Olympia, WA Burlington Northern – Seattle, WA First Federal Bank of Detroit – Detroit, MI Steelcase Corporation – Chicago, IL / Atlanta, GA / Grand Rapids, MI American Art – Atlanta, GA Westinghouse Corporation Kansas State University Grand Rapids Art Museum – Grand Rapids, MI Grand Rapids City Hall Herman Miller Executive Offices - Holland, MI City of Olympia Public Art Collection - WA Tectonics Corporation - Portland OR Hope College - Holland MI Perkins Coie - Seattle and Belleuve PUBLICATIONS 100 NW Artists Book Schiffer Press Spring 2013 Artwit NYC Online Magazine April 2012 NY Arts Magazine Summer 2010 The Rocky Mountain Outlook May 2008 The Oregonian February 2007 Bienalle Internationale Dell’ Arte Contemporanea, Quinta Edizona 2005 Home and Garden Fall 2005 The Portland Mercury April 2002 Dream House Western Canada Magazine 2004 The Magazine Sante Fe, New Mexico 1998 COMMISSIONS FOR PUBLIC ART 2000 1997 1987
City of Olympia Portable Collection City of Olympia 1% for the arts / Outdoor Tile Mural Centrum Artist in Residence / Centrum Press / Port Townsend, WA
ESSAYS Doug Meyer LA Art Critic Ann Landi NYC Art Critic Richard Speck NYC Critic and Director of the Florence Bienalle