SENS Gallery is pleased to announce “Dancing into Spring”, a solo exhibition featuring new works by Dutch artist Bart Kok. This exhibition marks Bart Kok’s second solo show with the gallery, having previously debuted his works in Asia with SENS Gallery’s ‘An Acorn Fell On My Head’ exhibition in December 2022. Running from 27 April to 18 May 2024, the show features work created between 2023 and 2024, highlighting the distinct blue tones of the woodlands in Kok’s paintings to portray the arrival of the spring season.

Kok’s work blurs the lines between the corporeal and the fantastical, featuring distinctive, abundant landscapes that emanate feelings of vitality. Upon a closer look, it can be observed that each painting is decorated with a variety of patterns that encapsulates the otherworldly landscape. Despite the similarities in the colour tones and hues of his earlier works, Kok utilizes these characteristics to create a refreshing outlook of the world, particularly where life comes anew with the arrival of spring. In contrast, these same blue and cerulean tones of his earlier works highlight the coming of winter; the dark blues emanate the comings of the cold weather. Like his previous series, Kok explores his fascinations with the mysteries of life – the quiet felt between the trees, and the stillness of lakes in lush nature, encapsulates these feelings.

The various patterns that complement one another throughout his work creates a fascinating realm, kindly encouraging the imagination of the viewer to enhance what it feels like to be in that world. Kok takes prevalence in the finest details, utilizing the nuances of each pattern as various textural surfaces, enlivening the landscape. Finding inspiration through observation by strolling the geographies of the Dutch and Flemish countryside, Kok’s signature style is defined as a contemporary blend of pointillism and fauvism, reminiscent in the works of Georges Seurat and Henri Matisse.

Bart Kok blends the contemporary and the traditional: his strong brushstroke techniques are reminiscent of those seen in art history, but additionally applies oversaturated tones and colours to mimic their brightness as seen on a computer. To manifest these forests, woodlands and lakes in his realms, Kok draws to simply observe, and through photography, to blend the truths and imaginations that will perpetuate into familiar visions of the world that surrounds him.

In his works, Bart Kok’s fanciful patterns and colours synergize into a world that blends imagination and reality. The exhibition ‘Dancing into Spring’ highlights these verdure forests, accentuated in emerald colours, coming forth into the beginnings of spring.