5 Minutes With Levi van Veluw
In our new feature Five Minutes With… we ask artists to take 5 minutes out of their day to answer some questions through which we get to know them better. What is their go to song while working in the studio? Which single work of art would they choose to live alongside in their home? And what projects are they currently working on?
Today we have 5 Minutes with Levi van Veluw.
What’s the most important or most memorable advice you’ve been given?
If you’re making a work, you should feel a necessity, if not, don’t make it
What is something you feel you need to do everyday?
Although you might not think so, I’m not compulsive, rather something between pragmatic and chaotic. When you get older you notice that distraction from work is sometimes more fruitful than always working.
Which talent would you like to have?
lways something I could never be, I can envy an artist who makes something really good with rough brushstrokes for example. I would like a talent for being able to work in a more expressive way.
What projects are you currently working on?
A new solo exhibition for the Italian gallery we collaborate with and at the same time presentations for various art fairs such as a solo at Artissima and new work for Luxembourg Artweek and untitled Miami.
In my new work I’m incorporating mechanics, hidden from view, inside the clay sculpture. The hart of this engine is powered by a spring. Through a ritual act such as turning the sculpture or another repetitive movement, the objects come to life and create a hallucinatory andimmersive effect.
If you could curate your own show, what artworks would be in it, which themes would you like to tackle and what concepts would you like to explore?
If you are successful, your oeuvre will be ripped apart and scattered around the world. Sometimes you hear stories that an artist is discovered at the end of his life and that the entire oeuvre is still in the studio. It has a certain romantic beauty to it. I always try to create exhibitions with the feeling of a total work of art, also known as the ‘gesamtkunstwerk’.
ABOUT Levi van Veluw
Levi van Veluw was born in the city of Hoevelaken in 1985. He lives and works near Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Over the past 15 years, Van Veluw has produced a diverse and evolving oeuvre that is exhibited all around the world. He is known for installations, sculptures, drawings, and autobiographical films that draw from his childhood memories. From the depths of his memory, the artist unearths images that provoke universal emotions and question our human logic. Van Veluw plays with elements of order and chaos, posing to the viewer questions about our obsessive pursuit of control.
Van Veluw creates his works with extreme care and craftsmanship; his sculptures of clay and wood are made entirely by hand, giving them an authentic, coarse, and organic character. His intricately built-up charcoal drawings show great symmetry and harmony, whilst his remarkable use of light evokes a strong, meditative mood. The installations by Van Veluw offer intense and immersive experiences. In the past, he has built complete, though fictional cathedrals – amongst other dark and sensory spaces built of obscure forms and materials. Visitors that enter Van Veluw’s alternate realities become disassociated from their existing spatial interpretations. They experience a disruptive environment where both order and chaos live one amongst the other.
The work of Van Veluw has been exhibited internationally in leading museums and institutions worldwide, such as the Museum of Arts and Design, New York; the Bass Museum of Art, Miami; Ars Electronica, Linz; Centro Nacional de las Artes, Mexico City; Design Museum, London; Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, and Marres House for Contemporary Culture, Maastricht, amongst others. His work is included in both public and private collections, such as the Borusan Collection, Istanbul; Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar; Museum MORE, Gorssel; the KPMG Art Collection, Amstelveen; the Ekard Collection, Wassenaar; the Lakeside Collection, Rotterdam, and Cobra to Contemporary/The Brown Family Collection.
Additionally, Van Veluw has worked on commissions for private clients. Within these commissions he has undertaken many collaborations. In 2012, Van Veluw worked alongside curator Marc Coetzee on the film “Family”, produced as part of the “Films4peace” project. In 2014, working alongside Hermès, Van Veluw created a life-sized site-specific installation for one of their main windows in Shanghai. Van Veluw has also participated in international film festivals, including Addis Foto Fest, Addis Ababa; Afrika Film festival, Leuven; Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival, Port of Spain, and West Midlands Human Rights Film Festival, Birmingham.
