Marjolein Landman’s starting point and her source of inspiration are the city and the way in which man relates to this self-created, artificial environment: the hectic and dynamic urban metropolis, in all its beauty, drabness, rawness, sprawl and decay. Landman uses confrontations – between colour, use of lines and composition – to express her unease about the way in which man gives shape to, exhausts and mutilates the world around him. Time and time again, she draws on her considerable imagination to provocatively translate modern man’s petrified biotope onto canvas. Starting with a basic idea, or a certain colour palette, her paintings gradually evolve into finished pieces that are layered, bold and reminiscent of collages. However spontaneous and seemingly arbitrary her compositions might seem, each is the result of a protracted process of consideration, choice and decision-making. This isn’t obvious, of course; none of her canvases appear contrived or forced. Landman’s urban metaphors, invariably depicted on large canvases, are unfiltered, edgy and contentious, but also extremely beautiful.

Her spatial works feature the same maladjusted mentality and contrariness, and bold material choices are used to communicate her underlying message.