Chantal Spit

Atelier NDSM-plein 151, Kunststad, NDSM LOODS

Chantal Spit (Losser, the Netherlands, 1971) received her education at the AKI in Enschede (1991-1996) and was an artist in residence at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam in 2002 and 2003.In 2002 she won the Buning Brongers Prize.Three times she was a nominee for the Dutch Royal Prize for Painting, in 2002, 2004 and 2005.Her works were shown at various galleries, fairs and museums in the Netherlands and abroad among which are: Rijksmuseum Twenthe, GEM The Hague, LUMC Leiden, Royal Palace Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, ARCO Madrid.In 2008 she was an artist in residence in Xiamen, China, at the Chinese European Art Center.

Since 2014 Chantal lectures Fashion Design, Fine Art and Graphic Design at HKU, Utrecht and is a workshop facilitator at the van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. She lives and works in Amsterdam.

Ever since Chantal Spit started painting, people - particularly children – have played a central role in her works. Through the lives of others, she aims to gain insight into what moves her. Her source material consists of both my own photos and photos that she finds in magazines, photo albums, and the Internet. Chantal composes new images by combining parts of these photos. She uses her own realm of experience and reference, and also call upon the memory and experience of the viewer.Chantal’s painting method is direct. The paint is applied in such a way that the viewer can follow its path. The visual perspective is somewhat unorthodox: sometimes from above, sometimes sideways, or from behind; sometimes confrontational as the subject looks the viewer straight in the eye.She employs an illusion of light: clear light in contrast to deep shadows, or a hint of light emanating from an unknown source. Environments are often undetermined, a sense of time only suggested by a setting sun or the shadow thrown by a lamp. The subjects of her paintings are often lost in their own world.With minimal image information, she achieves a certain atmosphere and tells a story, creating a work that bubbles with internal tension.