SOLO EXHIBITION
SOLO EXHIBITION
SOLO EXHIBITION
The World's Leading Contemporary Fine Art Gallery
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The World's Leading Contemporary Fine Art Gallery
Claudette
Bleijenberg
UNITED STATES
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“Bleijenberg focuses on the natural beauty of the body, she pays special attention to the power of women.”
Claudette Bleijenberg is a figurative sculptor based in San Francisco, CA. Primarily working with water-based clay and cast bronze, her over ten years long practice challenges predetermined notions of beauty standards—both masculine and feminine. Her sculptures highlight the natural beauty of humans as she sculpts her figures realistically rather than ideally. Additionally, her works reaffirm that the human body and its varied presentations are inherently beautiful.
Inspired by the early days of COVID shelter-in-place Pandemic I is a physical expression of the world health crisis & shelter-in-place. Pandemic I is uncomfortable, bound & blind folded. Her contorted position is a reflection of forced confinement, her burlap bindings further reflect this discomfort and pain. She is blind both physically and metaphorically.
Rather than focusing on physical attributes or external aesthetics, she focuses on the internal and embraces the beauty of raw emotions. Her body of work embraces both positive and negative emotions. Feelings of solitude, rejection, and despair often interweave with the voluptuous curves in her female figures. Other works focus on discomfort and pain, while others highlight endurance and survival in adversity.
Pandemic II represents the painful instances of the human experience caused by the worldwide pandemic experienced in 2020. It juxtaposes vulnerability with the will to fight and overcome an unexpected predicament. The physical restraints allude to the obligatory shelter in place lockdown policies. Her back tattoo will stay with her throughout her life, just as the effects of COVID-19. However, the branding also speaks to her endurance and her survival in adversity.
Preferring to work with live models, when possible, Bleijenberg works towards one constant outcome—a final narrative inspired by the model. Her sculptures explore the connections between the artist’s hands and the model. And how the relationship between the mind’s eye allows for a unique experience that feeds the soul.
“Bleijenberg focuses on the strength and fierceness of the female spirit.”
Bleijenberg allows for the story and spirit of the work to be revealed gradually. Her measured and careful process allows for the essence of her sculptures to communicate their narrative. Her process encompasses the strength, vulnerability, power, and liberation of both the piece and artist, allowing them to become one.
“Through her sculptures, she explores the various meanings and interpretations of beauty.”
Her triumphant celebrations of confidence and uniqueness make statements against societal vanity. Her sculptures provide an intimate and emotional commentary on various topics ranging from carnal desire, death, the role of women, and relationships. Furthermore, experiences and emotions shared by humanity and those she experiences herself influence the continuous development of her series.
Desire
Desire to us was like a double death,
Swift dying Of our mingled breath,
Evaporation Of an unknown strange perfume
Between us quickly In a naked Room.
Langston Hughes
“Her figurative sculptures highlight the beauty found in the lines and curves of the human body. They also capture the strength and vulnerability found within.”
Nurturing was one of my first true breakthroughs as an aspiring artist. A piece that for me captured the synergy between the artist and the model, it challenged me to go beyond my previous limits. This piece taught me. It continues to hold within it that strong feeling of being an artist. These experiences while creating the work combined with her gesture - the soft look toward the viewer over her shoulder - is a sculpture that truly was, is, and continues to be Nurturing.
Her various series focus on different emotions. Sculptures from her Fragmented series capture the haunting beauty that comes from the vulnerability and intensity of an exposed soul. They highlight the beauty of the tension found in a figure’s curves in protected poses such as arms wrapped around their chest or in the fatal position. Her Deviant Collection explores the intimate connections between individuals, both with themselves and with others. Reverent and almost sensual poses capture unique physical and psychological interactions ubiquitous to the human experience.
Inspired by the deep sense of loss at my father's passing, and the feeling that his spirit continues to protect and guide me, this piece is dedicated to my dad Harry Bleijenberg. Everyday I am grateful to have shared such a wonderful connection with another human being, and am constantly reminded of how precious and rare that is in this world. While I struggle to find my way with the void left in his passing, I find solace in knowing he continues to live on with me.
Her most recent series, completed in 2020, provides an intriguing sculptural perspective for an unprecedented universal situation. Additionally, this latest series embraces a new sculptural style with rough textures and deep pitting inspired by Japanese Butoh dance.
Vixen is inspired by the fierceness of a woman's strength and beauty. This work explores themes of desire, passion, and flirtatiousness by unapologetically embracing sexuality. She is a woman who is confident in her physical desires, and is inviting her partner to join her. The gesture of the sculpture alludes to her openness and desire to engage and play. This piece provides a commentary on the existing societal prejudices on how different genders openly express their carnal desires.
By using various mediums and finishes, Bleijenberg’s emotionally charged figures capture how light can enhance the contours of a form and how light and shadow create everchanging angles, shapes, lines, and mass. She often plays with the texture of her sculptures to enhance the emotions her art conveys.
Lover has a quiet calm confidence about her that speaks to her inner power and strength. Thru subtle shifts in her pose; the lowering of the chin so as to gaze at the viewer from beneath her brow, the lifting of her hip so as to create a subtle sway in the back, the downward stretching of her arm to gently stroke her leg, she demonstrates this confidence, and flirtatiously invites you to engage. Her beauty lies in the way she telegraphs her inner strength, permitting you passage into her world.
"Through various sculptural techniques, she captures the wide range of the human experience.”
Inspired by Rodin's works in which he evoked damaged sculptures of antiquity, the fractured figure is a modern interpretation of a traditionally realist art form. With its bare suggestion of the head, arms and torso, these works express the haunting fragility of the human experience. The partial figure, purposefully left as incomplete, conveys that basic human life experience to feel not whole.
Bleijenberg continues to evolve the manner in how she captures intense emotions. Inspired by the Japanese form of Butoh dance, her recent work embraces a stronger emotive style. Butoh dance began in the 1960s as a reaction to the post-World War II shock, industrialization to Japanese traditional culture, and the horrors to social life by the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The dance consists of slow movements by performers in the nude wearing white body paint. Bleijenberg replicates the white makeup worn by the dancers on their faces and body in the texture of her work to recreate the powerful visual effect of melting, crying, or hurting.
Ibtsam commands your attention and holds it. Her physical forms - the contours of her body and the landscapes they create as the eye travels from her lower back, up to her shoulder blades, along the nap of her neck, then over her collar bone and gently back down to her navel - are alluring and seemingly never ending. With every turn, there is more to discover and so she beckons to you, calling you to come back for more, tempting you to further explore her.
Her pieces command attention from the room through a nonverbal dialogue stemming from serene yet dynamic poses. Each piece created is unique and different, but they all embrace the artist’s soul and compel the viewer to become part of an intimate encounter and view the artist’s and model’s world through sculpture.
"I heard the voice of God once. It was a woman. She said 'Could you please remove your hoodie from your shoulders?'". I smiled instantly, and made eye contact with him, something I don't typically do when I am in the flow of a piece. The model was referring to me and a request I had made of him a couple of weeks earlier. I thought he was flirting with me, and I enjoyed it.