Space is a drawing

In her work, Irene van de Mheen investigates the relationship between physical space and its translation to the flat surface, within the possibilities of drawing. All her work is related to space, in architectural and abstract terms, and emphatically visual. Drawings of tranquil constructions emerge from colour, line, shape and rhythm, in which chance and imperfection play an important role. They are spaces without time, mental constructions projected onto a sheet of paper or onto the walls themselves, suggesting the possibility of another space. Again and again there is the fascination that two simple lines can form a perspective: a suggestive or parallel spatiality.

Experiencing, conquering, transforming and mapping space is central. The collected impressions of architecture in urban, industrial or rural environments, and of interior spaces such as stairwells, corridors and rooms, merge into an abstract memory. Irene translates this tangle of perspectives and experiences into drawings. The format varies from small works on paper to monumental, site-specific installations in which the playful, intuitive character of the small drawings is preserved as much as possible.

Irene van de Mheen studied at the Constantijn Huygens University of the Arts in Kampen (now Artez) and continued her studies at the Escola Massana and Escola d’Art i Oficis de Barcelona la Llotja. She lived in Barcelona for over sixteen years and did artist residencies at home and abroad. In New York, Irene started working with all kinds of adhesive tape, which resulted in an architecture made up of colored lines for the Fundació Miró a Mallorca. With this she won the Pilar Juncosa i Sotheby's prize in 2002. In 2007 she did a work period at the EKWC, the European Ceramic Work Center in 's-Hertogenbosch, after which she settled back in the Netherlands.

Opening: 30.5.2025, 5 pm