Portfolio
If you've clicked on this page it must mean you are an individual of impeccable taste who is interested in good art and beautiful things. Welcome. On this page you will get a peek behind the curtains of what goes on at art studio INSI. If this page makes you more curious, you are in luck, there is even more to see and take in. Almost all works are for sale and inquiries are always welcome. You can also come by to visit and have a chat with Yonah de Beer. You can always send us an email via the contact page. Enjoy, and see you soon.
This Oscillating Cosmos
2020
Acrylic paint, Acrylic markers, Crayon, Wall paint 190 x 180 cm
When I made this artwork I had not painted for a while due to my final projects at de Bildung Academie. I wanted to fill it with further exploration of my abstract cosmic compositions.
My intention was to not have an intention when pressing the brush to the surface. I wanted the work to flow through me. At this point in time, my view of art was that each work portrays a 'big bang', a display of the conception of the emotion or creative intention behind that particular work. A birth of a creative cosmos.
Het Verleden Ligt in de Toekomst
2021
Acrylic paint, Acrylic markers, Wall paint, Spray paint 100 x 160 cm
The beast on the canvas can be taken very literally or metaphoric. At the most basic level, the interaction between the ‘hunter’ and the ‘beast’ just denotes ‘person against beast’ whatever that person or beast may be. It could symbolize the fight between the individual and the system of capitalism, or the fight between any individual and any system. However, the reason that it can represent this story is because we view it from our standpoint in space and time. We give it meaning from our very specific time/space/cultural location, even though the picture really hasn’t changed over the past 50 000 years, it’s meaning still alters as time progresses. The universe demands change and chaos, even from unmovable and ‘unchangeable’ objects.
Gateway to de Poorten van Je Moeder
2020
Acrylic paint, Acrylic markers, Newspapers, Toiletpaper, Wall paint, Masking tape 115 x 150 cm diptych
This painting is a return to a sense of primordial nostalgia. It is longing back to a mini-verse, endlessness in a protected smaller space: the womb.
This longing usually returns after I start to feel confined. Confined by endless possibilities, by my anxieties and depressions. I begin to yearn for stillness. Not for death, but stillness. To return to the womb is to go to a safe 7 place, where we can wait for a new world to begin. It is the ideal waiting room we envision in our mind when our role in existence has become too confined.
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Performance on Identity
performance, 2019
Acrylic paint, Acrylic markers, Crayon, Wall paint 115 x 150 cm diptych
These two paintings (115 x 150 cm) were part of my 'Performance on Identity'. The artwork is filled with symbolic representations of the workshops and lectures I followed during my module on Identity at de Bildung Academie. There is symbolism from Taoist, Buddhist, and Ubuntu philosophies.
This was also the first painting I made. Part of the performance was to see how my plan for this painting would unfold. How my uninhibited and unschooled style of painting would meet in dialogue with my plans and give expression to the artwork. This artwork was the product of giving expression to introspection and the search for my identity.
This video was part of my 'Performance On Identity'. I wanted to paint symbolic self-portraits and record the proces so that I could project the recording over the paintings during my performance. This illustrated the movement and change in my identity during this course at de Bildung Academie.
The choice for the music is an homage to the art of sampling, a fundamental part of hiphop. The song is 'Mind Rain' by Joe Chambers. It was sampled by Nas on 'N.Y. State of Mind'. Simultaneously, the use of boxing gloves was an expression of my identity and an homage to Basquiat.
The picture on the left hand side was made by Remi Bouvier. He was also the editor and cinematographer of the video. I included this picture because it presents the process of painting these canvasses very accurately. I was using all materials thoughtfully, and I had set out a plan before I started to work. I had my book with notes and drawings of the lectures lying on the floor. But I was also scrambling through all my materials, using anything that I could find to give expression to my thoughts. This picture presents the process of reflecting upon my identity on canvas.
Terra Incognita
2022
Acrylic paint, Acrylic markers, Wall paint, Spray paint 90 x 120 cm
This painting was an exploration of new materials and the use of layers. I used approximately 2 cans of wall paint, 1 tube of acrylic paint, and multiple spray paint cans. This painting is one the viewer can drown in. I also used coarsely ground pumice to add depth to the paint layers. 'Terra Incognita' is a new universe, on which no shape has taken a form yet. Everything remains possible.
Plastic Soup
2020
Acrylic paint, Acrylic markers, Crayon 75 x 115 cm
This work was inspired by the literature on the presence of microplastic around the world and inside our bodies. Timothy Morton's notions of 'dark ecology' and 'the mesh' drew my interest.
The mesh is the interconnectedness of all things in the world, either natural or manufactured things. Once a thing has a presence in this world, it enters this mesh of interconnectedness. This is why ecology is dark. Oil, plastic, and waste are all things that we have become interconnected with due to the ecological endeavours of humankind.
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Ego Revolution
2021
Acrylic paint, Acrylic markers, 60 x 80 cm
This painting is about continuously experimenting with my perception of art. My fear is that after a few years I won't be creating inspired works anymore but rather repeat the same trick over and over again.
Painting this piece was a revolt against my anxieties and a declaration of continuous creative expression.
I want to create, not produce.
Twee Arbeiders en Één
Priester
2022
Acrylic paint, Acrylic markers, Crayon, Spray paint 70 x 50 cm triptych
In this work I make a distinction between having to create values from nothing and needing to work the world, so to speak, to create a distinct sets of values. The priest creates from nothing, they do so with their mind and as a result abstract values are realized. The workers need to work materials and the world. They touch and their values with their hands.
Both ways of creating result in a different set of symbols and psychological realism. This is portrayed by the various hieroglyphics and symbols present on each of the canvasses.
Leegte
2022
Acrylic paint, Acrylic markers, Spray paint 90 x 120 cm
The name of the artwork is misleading because the canvas is filled with different connotations/synonyms of the word emptiness.
The background of this artwork is a philosophical argumentation in which I attempt to prove that emptiness is in fact full. I draw from Eastern philosophies such as Buddhism and Taoism. ‘Leegte’ emphasizes the urgency for creation. This artwork challenges the beholder to face the emptiness inside them and let them experience how full it feels.
A Response to Performance on Identity
Video, 2022
Acrylic paint, Acrylic markers, 150 x 100 cm
In the artwork ‘A Response to Performance on Identity’ (2022), made a little bit more than 2 years after his first work, he tries to reconcile the struggle from the two parts of his inner world. Similarly to creativity, de Beer believes that identity is a verb. It is an act. Therefore it is susceptible to change. After 2 years of painting de Beer did not feel that the 2 parts of his (creative) identity were in opposition with each other anymore. Rather, they had to adapt in order to survive.
In the new painting the body and head of each of the figures have switched. This symbolizes how the artist feels about how he had to approach creativity as something that you can live off of. The rational mind needed to value the art he was making as something that can also be expressed in money. Because more money meant a bigger chance of finding a living space. The creative mind doesn’t work this way. It creates solely for the purpose of creation. To materialize feelings on canvas in order to process them. So the rational mind and the creative mind had to come together, in order to survive. ‘A Response to Performance on Identity’ (2022) speaks back to ‘Performance on Identity’ (2019) by taking symbols and words, and part of the artists’ earlier identity, and putting it in a new frame. De Beer believes that his new identity is built on the old, rather than replacing it. He materialized this thought on the canvas by creating a very chaotic first layer, similar to that of ‘Performance on Identity’ (2019), and then painting over it, without making it invisible. The past can be seen beneath the surface of the present.
In the accompanying video for the ‘Identity and Belonging’ exhibition, de Beer and his videographer/editor Bart Lorent wanted to build on the previous video. To freeze the process of creation and to freeze the process of interpretation. Keeping the paintings from the 2019 performance in frame was a creative choice to underline the nearness of the past in the present moment. This time de Beer chose to make a longer video than in ‘Performance on Identity’ (2019). They wanted the video to be more of a standalone part in the installation, not only adding meaning to the new artwork but also speaking back to the previous video and artwork.
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7 x 10 keer Mijn Gedachten
2022
Acrylic paint, Acrylic markers, Spray paint 100 x 150 cm, 70 10 x 10 cm canvasses
I met an older artist who was selling canvasses because he had to clear his studio. We started talking about creativity and after some time he showed me some of his work to explain how he liked to work. This work is inspired to his dedication to continuously try new things and to my own creativity. I hope it will forever continue to choose between different forms of expression.
This work took me 8 weeks to finish. And I can still find new favorite details in it.