September 3 – 28, 2024
Rob Niezen’s “Cross Cut”
Opening reception:
Friday, September 6 | 7:30 pm
Sponsored by Backcountry Homes and Tweed & Company
Artist statement
My painting and printmaking are both influenced by European graphic novels and Dutch graphic tradition. My approach to layout and composition is significantly influenced by my experience in advertising and graphic design in Europe and Canada. Similarly, narrative and visual contrast are essential elements in my work. With an eye for randomness, I view the ordinary from extraordinary angles or at extraordinary moments, seeking visual narratives
Started in 2019 and continued into 2022, Cross Cut is a series of 24 linocuts that are a contemporary response to traditional songs (circa 1800-1940) collected by CBC’s Edith Fowke in rural Ontario during the 1950s and ’60s. The underlying themes of these songs are of a timeless nature, as they deal with human existence: love, deception, politics, war, immigration, work, leisure, murder, death, etc.
The linocuts use both the traditional method of carving the material, and more recent and experimental ways of mark making, including laser engraving and etching. The work invites viewers to reflect on society in the past and today; superficially things have changed, but the human conditions now are not that different from 150 years ago.
About the artist
Rob Niezen is a painter, printmaker and illustrator. He paints mostly in oils, and his printmaking includes etchings and linocuts. His art has been shown in solo exhibitions at Agnes Jamieson Gallery, Art Gallery of Northumberland, John M. Parrott Gallery and Art Gallery of Bancroft, as well as in over 40 juried exhibitions. He has participated in the annual Kawartha Studio Tour since 2010 (organized and juried by Art Gallery of Peterborough). In 2018 Rob was one of the selected artists included in Roll-O-Matic, Public Acts of Printmaking, as part of ArtsWeek Peterborough.
Rob created the illustrations for Ameliya Disappears, a children’s book published in 2021 by Jamaican author Angela Punky Stultz. In 2022 he created Cross Cut: traditional Ontario folk songs revisited that includes an exhibition of linocuts, a songbook co-produced with music historian Dr. Allan Kirby, and a music CD with traditional music group Backwoodsmen.
In 2015 Peterborough County awarded Rob Niezen a Leadership in Arts & Culture Recognition Award. He was a board member at the Art School of Peterborough for six years and is still involved as a volunteer.
His work is in private and corporate collections across Canada, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, United Kingdom and United States, including Peterborough Regional Health Centre, SickKids Toronto and Siemens Canada.
Rob Niezen is partly self taught and studied at Vrije Akademies in The Hague and Delft, the Netherlands, as well as the Art School of Peterborough. He was born in The Hague, the Netherlands, and lives and works in Douro, Ontario, Canada.
Charitable Registration #: 81973 7750 RR0001.