Solomon Fine Art is delighted to host an exhibition of painting and embroidery by the award-winning, multi-disciplinary artist Cléa van der Grijn.

Art has the unique ability to hold time in its layers. Cléa van der Grijn’s works embody the dynamic tension between what has been, what is, and what will unfold. Much more than surfaces, van der Grijn’s canvases are vessels of memory and transformation, each one a portal inviting us to explore and acknowledge the spaces between presence and absence, permanence and transience.

Van der Grijn’s painted works demonstrate the artist’s process orientated philosophy, whereby compositions are formed in an unconventional manner, often deconstructed and reformed, deliberately revealing traces of their history and allowing new meanings to emerge. The face that once occupied the frame has transformed into a mountain- a form so familiar it invites us to reconsider the act of seeing itself. In ORBIVA we are presented with a series of these painted compositions in juxtaposition with their embroidered counterparts. A series of digitally embroidered iterations delicately retrace the vivid forms of the originals and display a comparative fragility which further emphases the artist’s preoccupation with transience and temporality. These works reflect the ephemeral nature of recognition- always the same, yet never quite so.

Cléa van der Grijn is an international award winning visual artist and film-maker based in Sligo. Her process is multi -faceted, incorporating site-specific installation, large format photography, sculpture, drawing, painting and film. In 2023 van der Girjn was the recipient of the Arts Council of Ireland’s Authored Works Award to produce a feature length film. Elisa in Wonderland, the artists second feature film, premiered at the IFI, Dublin this year. Previous films, The Disembodied Adventures of Alice, FLUX, JUMPand Reconstructing Memory, have won numerous awards at International Film Festivals and in 2021 her short film JUMP was purchased by the Irish Museum of Modern Art for their permanent collection. Van der Grijn has exhibited extensively in public and private art galleries in Ireland, Britain, Italy and the USA. Her work is represented in many private and public art collections including the Office of Public Works, The Arts Council of Ireland, Carton House, Bank of Ireland, AIB Bank, The Gate Theatre, Bord Gáis and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.