Bio
Exploring the fluid nature of life is at the heart of Natalja Heybroek's contemporary artwork. Using organic forms, her abstract art is an inquiry into how life is constantly unfolding. It deeply questions how we perceive the world and studies how our subjective experiences morph over time.
The backbone of the artworks are the deliberate elemental concepts, on which the art is based. Drawing from philosophy of the mind, human emotion and the natural world. As a result, shared understandings surface, human experience is interpreted and personal insights are expressed.
The autodidact artist is based in Toronto, yet many places have influenced her life. Her expressive nature derives from her upbringing in the imaginative and international Findhorn Foundation Community in rural Scotland; raised by creative Dutch parents.
With roots in Amsterdam and having lived in the Netherlands for 15 years, art runs thick in her family history. With a poet for a father, a great uncle who is the architect Cuypers - creator of the Rijksmuseum, and her great grandparents were neighbours and friends with the Van Gogh family.
Artist Statement
Closely linked to those around them, each person has their own knowledge, values and beliefs. In this piece ‘Mind Independence’, Natalja Heybroek looks at how these attributes combined creates a greater societal representation of what is perceived to be true. Portraying how culture continually grows and develops as perception gradually morphs into new ways of thinking.
The artwork is part of the Veritas Lux Mea series - meaning ‘the truth is my light’ in Latin. The unending pursuit of truth is the topic progressing throughout the 7 part series of floating paintings fossilised in epoxy.
The nature of the word ‘truth’ implies a universality, yet upon deeper reflection, what comes to light is that each person’s truth is deeply personal. What every individual believes and holds close to them during their life becomes their unique evolving perspective. And as consciousness develops in humans and time perpetually moves on, truth never stands still in one place.
Natalja Heybroek’s artwork embodies a visual exploration and reveals the unusual capabilities of materials. The unexpected intrigue in the detailed organic forms in her work has a tendency to connect with the observer on an experiential level.
