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Wed-Fri: 12-5pm

Jack Bell Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new paintings by Stijn Bastianen. This will be the artist's second solo show with the gallery.

"I have always wanted to entertain everybody for as long as I can remember. Making people around me laugh at jokes or by doing stupid senseless things. I feel the same towards painting. It's kind of a similar way to express myself. I want the same thing for myself as for others. I want to be challenged, entertained, wonder, fantasize and laugh. Painting offers me all of this along with a whole wide spectrum of emotions. My expectation is that my paintings trigger these things and hopefully more inside each viewer. Because I draw and paint from my gut, naturally I get inspired by the things that occupy my mind and obviously one of these things is being a painter.

In my larger paintings, I fantasize about weird or absurd situations as a painter to be in. From there on I slowly add details and focus points to direct the viewer's eye. It is important for me that the viewer gets sucked in from a distance and discover new things while exploring the canvas. Because the large paintings demand a lot of energy and focus, I often switch to smaller paintings and back. This helps me to create distance and keep a clear fresh vision on what I am doing.

As a kid I used to read a lot of comics and watch cartoons. In the past couple of years this began to appear more and more in my work. I think it has to do with the nostalgic aspect of it. Starting with cartoonish elements and figures this evolved further into the desire to tell a story in multiple frames. I use my sketchbook to draw what you could call 'small storyboards' in the shape of a canvas. Then I try to translate these in paint."

- Stijn Bastianen

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St James's 13 Mason's Yard, SW1Y 6BU