Aaltense is allowed to exhibit in New York

Published: 26-04-2022 15:04. Updated: 04/26/2022 15:53

She has been painting from a young age, but never before did the Aaltense Marleen Heusinkveld-Vinkenvleugel show her work with alcohol ink to the general public. It was only during the latest corona lockdown that she posted some of her paintings on social media and to her great surprise, her work was picked up and she is allowed to exhibit in a well-known art gallery in New York later this year.

“Once I took the step to put my work on social media, I thought it would be nice to exhibit in the area,” says Heusinkveld. “Winterswijk or Arnhem seemed very special to me, but then New York came.” Her work caught the eye of a talent scout at the Agora Gallery, an art gallery in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood that is home to more than two hundred art galleries. “I thought this must be someone’s silly joke”, says Heusinkveld. “I then did a lot of research with my family and it turned out to be real. Bizarre and a great privilege. There are not many words for that.”

Marleen has only been painting with alcohol ink for a few years now. A painting technique that is not really known yet. “You apply the alcohol ink to a plastic-like paper and add pure alcohol to it,” says Heusinkveld. “You then move the ink over the sheet by moving the paper or by blowing and blow-drying. Because the ink starts to take on its own life very quickly, you have to quickly apply a composition. That is the challenge.”

‘Making a journey across the paper’
Marleen hopes to inspire people with her artworks. “I hope that people’s eyes travel across the paper when they look at my paintings,” says Heusinkveld. “I try to incorporate a central point in my paintings that your eyes are drawn to first. From there I hope that people will look further and search.”

Guidance from New York
Starting next month, Marleen will be intensively supervised by the art gallery in New York for a year. “That could be in the field of promotion, what prices do you attach to your paintings and what are the most useful steps in your career”, says Heusinkveld. That guidance is very valuable to the artist. “I hope that very good things will come of that.”

‘A great honour’

In addition to her work as an artist, Marleen is also a drawing therapist, speech therapist and gives workshops. She hopes to live in the future of painting. “I would consider it a great honor if people would soon want to have one of my works on their walls”, says Heusinkveld. “That there is something there that people look at every day and that I have put my heart and soul into. That would be the greatest honor of all.”

Dreaming of a solo exhibition
Now that doors are opening for her, Marleen hopes to be able to exhibit her works all over the world. “If I could dream now, I would really like to have a solo exhibition in a big city,” says Heusinkveld. “Again in New York, London, Dubai or simply in Amsterdam. That the whole space is full of my art and that people come to see it. That seems fantastic.”

Photo: REGIO8

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