Beyond The Surface

Stan Van Steendam

“I started working more with materials I find along the way. Whether it is earth from Portugal or dust from my atelier, it results in more organically evolved work. For me, working is a constant friction of control versus acceptance.”

We’re visiting the artist in the Italian city of Brescia, where he has just finished a month-long artist residency at Palazzo Monti, an imaginative location filled with history and ceiling frescoes. The palace was given its current name by Italian-born Edoardo Monti, who came back to his home country after building a career on the New York fashion scene. He left it all to follow his true passion in life: art. The inherited family palazzo became the predestined location for the Palazzo Monti project. Launched just three years ago, it has already become a sought-after artist residency programme.

Van Steendam and Monti met in Brussels, when the former invited the latter to his studio. “It ended up with an invitation
from Edoardo’s side,” Van Steendam says. “My time at Palazzo Monti was wonderful. I was curious to see my work in a location like that and it worked out as I had hoped. In addition, I welcome periods of seclusion with open arms – I always have.”

Van Steendam travels back and forth between his hometown of Brussels and his second studio in Lisbon, a lifestyle that is reflected in his work. It is deeply personal. His paintings do not reflect on the artistic medium in itself, but evoke ambiguity and draw you into their single-coloured surfaces. They grow, layer by layer, sculpted by his hands. While he works, the plaster underneath his hands solidifies, until an organically grown texture wins the battle. Sometimes, he finishes with a characteristic epoxy top layer. “It is very important that my work is authentic,” Van Steendam says. “Everything I create is an extended version of me.” With music playing continuously in the background, the artist works, reflecting on his life, and in doing so creates an oeuvre that reflects back on him.