SPOTLIGHT
Bianca Severijns, a paper artist
Bianca Severijns creates her artworks through a conscientious exploration of paper. She perfected an original artistic style in her beloved paper medium that is constructed by esthetically weaving, merging and layering hand-torn pieces.
Severijns is a Dutch-Israeli self-taught contemporary paper artist that in 2012 established her “Peace of Paper” studio in the Tel Aviv area. Art for Severijns began as a study of the cycles of nature and progressed to social and humanistic themes. Her artworks maintain a pure and hand-made feel that tell stories which carry imperfections symbolic of life itself.
In her former “Earth Skins Series”, Severijns’ artworks focused on paper texture and abstract compositions that were inspired by nature. She was especially intrigued by the cycle point at which there is total bareness, vulnerability, decay and disintegration. She captured these temporalities by photographing nature, mostly in a contrasting urban setting, and used the images as a source of inspiration. The decay can be observed in various works of this series in which fallen leaves and dried-up grass portray the moment just before the stage of rotting, yet still graceful and beautiful.
In her continuing art pieces Severijns sought to examine the theme of displacement and how the stages of nature intertwine with human conditions such as being uprooted, nesting and revival. This resulted in the “Uprooted Series” and her “Nesting Vessels”.
The works in the “Uprooted Series” dealt with elements of tension, forced separation, isolation, and order/disorder. These conditions were the key sources of inspiration for Severijns abstract paper compositions. Each work expressed our fragility and vulnerability when uprooted. Her hand-tearing technique of the paper leaves a ruggedness and raw edge that is analogous to being torn away from all ties and belongings when uprooted.
While in the “Sister Series” the artist researched the uprooted identity theme. She used the faces of her three daughters as canvases for paper head vessels. Her daughters were raised in a bi-cultural environment which often led them to search their cultural identity and to consciously define it. The Sisters Series focused on the erasure of identity that is often a result of being uprooted.
As a quest for a deeper and more profound exploration of the displacement theme she started to examine the fundamental basic needs of people who are displaced. Her recent artworks concentrate on a reconceptualization of a humanitarian first need.
Severijns had her first group exhibition, as a contemporary paper artist, at the Trade Centre Offices of Electra, Rizhon LeZion in 2017. Recently, Severijns has been invited by the GAA Foundation to participate in the context of the Venice Art Biennial 2019.
Works in the collection are available for purchase.The artist also accepts commissioned projects.