Residency dates
27 June – 15 July 2024
Artist Images
Testimonial
"At Xenia, time both expands and stands still. The tranquillity and beauty of the place allowed for a period of introspection, self-nurture and inner peace, which in turn opened up a fertile space for experimentation and new ideas to flourish… a space to be brave.
My work explores challenging themes around bodily turmoil and the anxiety of living in our skin. I arrived at Xenia thinking about ideas of containment; bodies that are shut down, seeking shelter, knotted, trapped, insular. However, I slowly but steadily felt a sense of release here, an ‘opening’ that somehow echoed into the work. The work has assimilated the affective experience I had at Xenia… it was a nest, a shelter, a place to untie the knots, to feel restored. The hues and marks in the work acquired ‘elemental’ qualities. I played with sand and gel mediums, building layers of felt experience into my surfaces. Warm and cool hues in the
work, evoke opposing sensations, while textures that are scratchy, dry or rough coexist with the smooth and translucent, echoing a sense of both comfort and discomfort, harmony and discord.
Overall, I worked on a number of new paintings at Xenia, most of which I completed while there. Being able to live and breathe the work day and night in such a magical and serene place, strengthened the momentum in my practice and bore fruitful results.
I also met some wonderful artists and spent time with them exploring the flora, fauna, and, of course, the local pub in Upton Grey. I have vivid memories of the glorious light seeping through the heavy foliage on our walks, of rabbits scurrying into the bushes as I drew my blind in the morning, the baby deer hiding in the tall grass and then jumping through the field of daises outside my studio. I had a truly unforgettable experience here and will be forever grateful for this opportunity and for the openness, kindness and generosity of the team at Xenia."
Bio
Born
1977,
The Netherlands
About
Jennifer was born in 1977 and lives and works in London. She is Dutch by nationality and spent her formative years in Milan, Italy. She was mostly self-taught before embarking on an MA in Fine Art at City and Guilds of London Art School, completed in late 2021. This resulted in a marked shift in her practice, which now focuses on exploring bodily memory and its intangible sensory register.
Her work investigates notions of trauma and catharsis, presenting the female body as a site of pain, production and ambivalent tensions. Bodily forms act as cyphers for personal, human struggles, potentially both architects and victims of the world they inhabit. They sit host-less and isolated in tactile landscapes that reflect internal sensory states. Jennifer is interested in the potential of paint to encode and activate the felt. Painful emotions sit within the skin of her paintings, reverberating through mark, texture, sheen and colour.
For more information about Jennifer, please visit her website here: www.jennifernieuwland.com
Residency dates
27 June – 15 July 2024
Artist Images
Residency images
Testimonial
"At Xenia, time both expands and stands still. The tranquillity and beauty of the place allowed for a period of introspection, self-nurture and inner peace, which in turn opened up a fertile space for experimentation and new ideas to flourish… a space to be brave.
My work explores challenging themes around bodily turmoil and the anxiety of living in our skin. I arrived at Xenia thinking about ideas of containment; bodies that are shut down, seeking shelter, knotted, trapped, insular. However, I slowly but steadily felt a sense of release here, an ‘opening’ that somehow echoed into the work. The work has assimilated the affective experience I had at Xenia… it was a nest, a shelter, a place to untie the knots, to feel restored. The hues and marks in the work acquired ‘elemental’ qualities. I played with sand and gel mediums, building layers of felt experience into my surfaces. Warm and cool hues in the
work, evoke opposing sensations, while textures that are scratchy, dry or rough coexist with the smooth and translucent, echoing a sense of both comfort and discomfort, harmony and discord.
Overall, I worked on a number of new paintings at Xenia, most of which I completed while there. Being able to live and breathe the work day and night in such a magical and serene place, strengthened the momentum in my practice and bore fruitful results.
I also met some wonderful artists and spent time with them exploring the flora, fauna, and, of course, the local pub in Upton Grey. I have vivid memories of the glorious light seeping through the heavy foliage on our walks, of rabbits scurrying into the bushes as I drew my blind in the morning, the baby deer hiding in the tall grass and then jumping through the field of daises outside my studio. I had a truly unforgettable experience here and will be forever grateful for this opportunity and for the openness, kindness and generosity of the team at Xenia."
About
Jennifer was born in 1977 and lives and works in London. She is Dutch by nationality and spent her formative years in Milan, Italy. She was mostly self-taught before embarking on an MA in Fine Art at City and Guilds of London Art School, completed in late 2021. This resulted in a marked shift in her practice, which now focuses on exploring bodily memory and its intangible sensory register.
Her work investigates notions of trauma and catharsis, presenting the female body as a site of pain, production and ambivalent tensions. Bodily forms act as cyphers for personal, human struggles, potentially both architects and victims of the world they inhabit. They sit host-less and isolated in tactile landscapes that reflect internal sensory states. Jennifer is interested in the potential of paint to encode and activate the felt. Painful emotions sit within the skin of her paintings, reverberating through mark, texture, sheen and colour.
For more information about Jennifer, please visit her website here: www.jennifernieuwland.com
© 2020 Xenia Creative Retreat | Hampshire, UK
© 2020 Xenia Creative Retreat | Hampshire, UK