Background

In 2003, Belgian born artist Elisabeth Van der Voort painted a series of vibrant studies of fruit on large canvases. When London art dealer Stephanie Hoppen visited her in Belgium to interview her and to photograph her home, she noticed the contemporary paintings and invited her to have a solo exhibition in the spring of 2003 at the Stephanie Hoppen gallery in London. From that moment on, she succesfully took part in many group & solo exhibitions. Her discovery by Stephanie Hoppen and the inclusion of her work in Hoppen’s book The New Decorating With Pictures launched her career both in the UK and the USA.

Betty Van der Voort continued to explore other aspects of her medium, and by 2008 she returned to purely abstract work, which was shown for the first time at the London Art Fair 2009. The resulting pictures can be seen as a reflection of the years she spent as an interior designer.

Her latest work mark a departure from the figures in earlier series. Mostly based on her own photographs, she explores the nature of folds, experimenting with the effect of light and dark on pleated, folded materials. The focus lies on the potential of the paint on rough canvas or on wood.

In The Folding Method shape is only the final byproduct of lines folding into one another, of forms twisted within other forms.

Form that reveals its folds become force. ( Gilles De Leuze- "The Fold" )