About

MIA VAN VEEN (NO)

Mia Van Veen (b. 1986) holds an MFA from Iceland Academy of the Arts, and a BFA from Emily Carr University in Vancouver. Van Veen's practice is primarily sculptural, relating to painting wall reliefs and appropriation through the use of different metals – from steel and copper to aluminum and titanium.

With the use of heat, mechanical drills and melted tin, she investigates the qualities and possibilities of mark making in both the intuitive and traditional matter. Her new series of two dimensional works operate as cultural hybrids between sculpture and painting. These works reference the tradition of Norwegian rosemaling, a style of decorative painting which emerged in the eighteenth century parallel to other ornamental movements such as Rococo in France.

Approaching craft from a contemporary perspective, Van Veen experiments with material approaches to ornament: brushes and oil on wood are exchanged for melted tin on copper and steel. Treating metal like paint, Van Veen explores different welding techniques to mimic the pressure of a paintbrush in gestures of undulating thickness. Unlike the perfectly clean lines of rosemaling brushwork, her metal renditions are surprisingly human: they reveal palpable evidence of the artist's hand or join allowing the imperfections and inconsistencies to become a kind of performative adornment.