GALLERY - THE PRESENT
Jacqueline Schäfer
Painter Jacqueline Schäfer lives and works in Amsterdam where she graduated from the Rietveld Academie in 1989.
Initially she used painting purely as a means to express herself hence she developed a very personal and intimate voice. Throughout the years Schäfer became more and more interested in painting as a means of communication rather than mere expression. She explored how form, colour and motives are capable of affect.
She developed her highly recognisable and still very personal style. Her colourful paintings are characterised by clear strongly outlined shapes from which she constructs her scenes that are figurative yet not realistic.
Schäfer creates a world inhabited by strange birds, female nudes and serene still lifes. Her paintings are outspokenly cheerful in their use of colour and shape yet on closer inspection they have a profound emotional impact that reveals an almost fragile sensitivity. This synergy of an explicit joyful quality and a serene sensitivity is what mostly characterises Schäfer’s style.
In 2004 Schäfer started making sculptures as part of her practice. Many themes from her paintings come back in the sculptures, like the “Strange birds”. The clean clear colourful forms reflect the atmosphere of her paintings. Schäfer’s highly personal style, is simple yet layered, it expresses a exuberant love for life within the complex contemporary society.