6 October to 2 February 2019
Maia Weerdmeester was the winner of our Open exhibition in 2016. Her work stems from strategies to promote her own mental wellness, and consists of elaborate geometric forms built up from simple elements and processes.
“My mind is a pretty busy place, so to simplify matters, I stick to the basics – straight lines and primary colours. My art simply emerges out of that. My work is compulsive. It is what I do when my mind is struggling. It is at once systematic, ordinary, complex, mundane, intensive, relaxing, torturous, focused, repetitive, painful, rhythmic, and, occasionally, meditative. The outcome is not important – the process is ”.
She works with just three colours of ‘Sharpie’ pen (primary red, yellow and blue) to build up abstract compositions. The selection of angle of line, and combination of colours creates a wide variety of effects, colours and patterns. The largest piece in the exhibition entitled ‘Tribulation’ took over 70 hours to complete over a period of 49 days, and includes 3266 individual crosshatched squares.
Maia recently graduated from a BA(Hons) Fine Art degree at Doncaster College and University Centre. She currently has a studio at Church View studios, based in the former Doncaster College of Art building in Doncaster town centre.
