SANDRA VAN DER MEULEN | BALANCING CULTURE AND ROOTS

SANDRA VAN DER MEULEN | BALANCING CULTURE AND ROOTS

Shades of dark ink on light transparent rice paper, bold gestures, tiny delicate lines, text, and transparency, these elements are characteristic of the art of Sandra van der Meulen. She expresses her ideas about life and interconnectedness in a distinctive abstract style. The plainness and pureness of the materials chosen are essential. Graphic elements, like text and characters, form an integral part of the works; they are fundamental both to content and composition.
Daughter of a Chinese mother and Dutch father, van der Meulen spent much of her childhood in the Far East.
Sandra van der Meulen’s works have been purchased by art lovers in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, and the US.
In 2023 the first exhibition in France is planned with Acid Gallery, Lille.

“In the end, the artwork is not about me. It is just an image in its own right. And what really matters –quoting Henri David Thoreau– is not what you look at, but what you see.” – Sandra van der Meulen

“Growing up in a bicultural environment has influenced me deeply.
I think the subconscious feeling of balancing between the culturally infused expectations of both parents is at the root of my work method.
I try to merge both the eastern sense of emptiness and transparency with the more structured approach I experience in western art into a personal visual language. Not as a subject matter but as a means to express my ideas.
Balancing between oppositions underlies all my work: between layeredness and emptiness, control and spontaneity, sense and intuition; between more and less.”

“For me, the process of making art is like musing on life. The created image functions as a reminder to not lose acquired perceptions. That all in life is based on oppositions, not to oppose, but to complement.
Usually, my works are composed of three layers. Each layer demands its own technique, material, and attitude. Each layer expresses its own meaning. By bringing these layers together, accentuating their transparency by making them visible through each other, I try to convey my sense of interconnectedness.” – Sandra van der Meulen