Bio
My friends call me Cil, short for Priscilla. As long as I can remember drawing has been a part of me. Strangely enough it took me some time and different studies before I started creating the drawings I do now.
After high-school I applied to the School of fine Arts, Contantijn Huygens in Kampen, but instead of choosing Illustration I decided to study Graphic Design.
During this study I got to learn many disciplines and techniques for the first time, like woodcutting and photography.
After graduating in the year 2000 I worked as a graphic designer for some years but my interest for creating my own world in print lead me to decide to go back to School and study photography at the school of Fine Arts, the Hague.
In search for my own signature as a photographer I combined portraits I shot of people with images I shot in the streets. Traces of other people leaving their mark: from a sticker on a light pillar to graphity or details of architectural ornaments but also fabrics, flowers, street-signs… it could be anything. From this I created layered images, colorful mixed media images.
In 2009 things changed. A close friend asked me if I wanted to create a design for a glass wall inside his new restaurant, Restaurant Serge, in Amsterdam. Because I wanted to create something different, no photography portraits, I started using the drawing technique for the first time again – still combining this with the photographic structures in the design. This design turned out to be a great success and since then I found my love for drawing and painting again.
I create my paintings by sketching with graphite and then creating outlines from these drawings. My drawings and paintings are filled with graphic patterns, the patterns in the hairs are all details of structures I see around me. I am intrigued by the way we can experience our surroundings with our eyes closed, as if we are able to listen to our own inner self in a more pure way. This is why the females in my work look like they are dreaming with their eyes closed – and feeling pure in their uncovered skin – as if they don’t seem to notice us viewers. But when her eyes look at us – into the world – her naked skin is covered because of her awareness of the world around her.
Education
1995 – 2000 :
Art Academy Constantijn Huygens, Kampen
- Graphic Design
2004 – 2005
Royal Academy of fine Arts, The Hague
- Photography
Exhibitions
Current:
April 19 – June 14, 2013
PUP Gallery -group show
Hutspot – van Woustraat 4, Amsterdam
Opening – friday April 19 | 19.00 – 21.00
Future:
June 02 2013, 13.00 – 19.00
HTNK OneDayShop
TROUW, Amsterdam
http://www.htnk.nl/incubator/htnk-onedayshop
Experience
2013- May, Amsterdam Rhubarb week, Conservatorium hotel – Amsterdam
2013- January - May, Gallery Pouleouff – group show - Naarden Vesting
2013- April, 1000 Drawings, Flemish Art Centre De Brakke Grond – Amsterdam
2013- January, Modefabriek: HTNK OneDayShop -Amsterdam Rai
2012- HTNK OneDayShop – Trouw, Amsterdam
2012- Group Show, ‘Identity’ , WALLS gallery, Amsterdam
2012- Affordable Art Fair Amsterdam
2012- Group Show, ‘Keep on Dreaming’ , WALLS gallery, Amsterdam
2012- Wallpainting, Baas PR office, Amsterdam
2012- Group show, No Man’s Art Gallery, Copenhagen
2012- Group show, Nuit Blanche, Amsterdam
2012- Exhibit, HTNK OneDayShop in Amsterdam
2012- Publication, Prestage magazine
2012- Exhibit, HTNK OneDayShop in Amsterdam
2012- Group Show, ‘Artistic Affairs’ , WALLS gallery, Amsterdam
2012- Exhibit, HTNK stand, the Modefabriek, Amsterdam Rai
2012- Publication on the blog; I love illustration
2011- Group show, WeAreVoid Gallery, Opening show, Amsterdam
2011- Wallpainting, Bar 22, Amsterdam
2011- Artworks for Chicago Social Club, Amsterdam
2011- Wallpainting at Café Helden, in collaboration with Absolut Vodka, Amsterdam
2011- Exhibition in Hotel Arena, Abudanz, Amsterdam
2011- Abudanz, donated an artwork for fundraiser, Amsterdam
2011- Wallpainting at Regional Archive, Alkmaar
2010- Artworks male and female for Restaurant/bar Lion Noir Amsterdam
2010- Illustration for Tedx Women Amsterdam poster-program
2010- Illustration design for window frame in Bar Gold, Breda for Southern Comfort
2010- Photography assistant
2009- Wallpainting – Mogeen Hair-saloon
2009- Freestyle Photography / mixed media
2009- Illustration Artwork – restaurant Serge, Amsterdam
Represented by:
PUP CONCEPTS
http://pupconcepts.com/cil-laurens
GANG OF BERLIN
Contact:
www.cillaurens.com/contact or mail: info@cillaurens.com
