Sari Piek

Early on in life Sari Piek decided she wanted to be a painter so she entered the art academy of Groningen (Netherlands), which at that time was mainly about teaching the real craftsmanship of the arts. Upon finishing her education Sari Piek got in touch with the more free side of the creative process. Experiments in different techniques were the main course of her work at that time. Gradually Sari Piek found a way for herself to combine both the craftsmanship with her urge to experiment, which resulted in sometimes highly abstracted faces, bigger than real live, on canvas. Also, on paper, sometimes in many thick layers, she conjures up faces from the material, rooted in reality, but not governed by it. It is important for Sari Piek to highlight the unexpected. Emphasizing the things that stand out to her by means of color, light versus dark and structure. The people depicted are not specific persons, rather they are registrations of general human images, based on chance encounters, photos, memories and ideas. The canvases, to speak with the painter Malevich, are not meant to “depict things, but to make paintings”. In addition to her paintings, Sari Piek makes drawings, photos and collages.