Laurence Steenbergen

Working in the style of

Japanese sumi-e painting,

Laurence Steenbergen’s

acrylic on canvas works depict

the nebulous, snaking trail of

the essence of things. Blush,

lavender, teal and apricot blur

together in stunning disarray

or separate out into a neatly

delineated grid. Occasionally verging on geometric

abstraction, Steenbergen’s compositions convey a

sense of interconnectedness and duality. Inspired by

the work of Vincent Van Gogh, especially his use of

color, this artist’s bold expenditures of paint express

an exquisite balance between the European sense of

the luxurious and an Asian reverence for simplicity.

In addition to her acrylic on canvas and cardboard,

Steenbergen’s digital photographs further touch on

notions of chaos versus order, perfection compared

to bliss and innocence in relation to wisdom. Her

candid portraits of babies explore the winsome

delicacy of childhood and reinforce the pervasive

sense of discovery, play and abstraction as language

without reason in her painting.

Laurence Steenbergen was born 1975 in Busan,

South Korea. Raised in the Netherlands, she

graduated from business school in 1999 and

freelances as a photographer.