Virginia van Gaalen

Artist Statement

Art has always been a part of Virginia’s life, as an educator for 18 years and in recent times as a full-time artist. As someone who lives internationally her artwork is influenced by the country in which she lives. She has a unique sense of line and colour and is intuitive in her art practice. Virginia enjoys interpreting her ideas in a variety of media and often plays with different processes within her themes. Her paintings capture the world around her and are varied, from cityscapes of the Philippines – that embody the densely populated city of Manila – to the delicate mixed media work of Chinese shophouses in Southeast Asia.

Virginia’s recent ceramic pieces are unique in imagery, hand painted and layered with stencils and silkscreens that reflect the urbanscape of Bucharest. Her landscapes inspired by the Romanian countryside offer a sense of peace and tranquillity in contrast to the unpredictability of our times. Since moving to Hong Kong in 2021, the islands and oceans have been a new inspiration and chance to interpret the extraordinary times that we are living.

藝術一直是弗吉尼亞生活的一部分，作為一名教育工作者已有 18 年，最近又成為一名全職藝術家。作為一個在國際上生活的人，她的作品受到她所居住國家的影響。她對線條和色彩有著獨特的感覺，在她的藝術實踐中始終保持直覺。弗吉尼亞喜歡用各種媒體表達她的想法，並且經常在她的主題之中使用不同的創作流程。她的畫描繪了她周圍的世界，而且多種多樣，從菲律賓的城市景觀——體現了人口稠密的馬尼拉市——到東南亞中國店屋的精緻混合媒體作品。

弗吉尼亞最近的陶瓷作品在圖像上是獨一無二的，手繪和分層的模板和絲網印刷反映了布加勒斯特的城市景觀。她的風景靈感來自羅馬尼亞鄉村，與我們這個時代的不可預測性形成鮮明對比，給人一種和平與安寧的感覺。自 2021年移居香港以來，這些島嶼和海洋一直是詮釋我們生活的這個非凡時代的新靈感和機會。