Deon Venter

biography

Deon Venter exhibits internationally in leading contemporary fine art galleries. His work is included in the permanent collections of museums, national galleries, and notable public and private collections in Canada, the U.S.A., the U.K., Europe and Africa.

Venter’s paintings have been exhibited regularly at international art fairs on three continents. His unique content, method and use of material has stirred the interest of collectors worldwide. His critically acclaimed work has been reviewed in numerous newspapers and art magazines in Canada, South Africa and the U.S.A.

Venter was born in 1953 in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. He graduated from Port Elizabeth School of Art and Design in 1976. He lectured at the University of Fort Hare, Republic of the Ciskei, and the Port Elizabeth School of Art and Design, South Africa.

The artist immigrated to Canada in 1989 and currently lives on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, with his wife Kathy Venter, a noted ceramic sculptor.

where to see or read more

shows: On Salt Spring, visit the Venter Gallery, in Grace Point Square.

web: Visit Deon's website www.deonventer.com
Visit the Venter Gallery website www.ventergallery.com

press: Deon's work has been reviewed frequently, click here to read a selection.

contact the artist

address: Venter Studio, 315 Upper Ganges Rd., Suite 23, SSI, BC, V8K 2X4
phone: 250 537 4749
email: venterstudios@gmail.com

artist statement

Deon on painting and his series 'Last Supper'.

The perspective system employed within the composition has been the subject of numerous and contradictory studies, amongst others, that the perspective system is founded on a musical canon of proportion. The orthogonals converge fairly precisely in the head of Christ - thereby locating the vanishing point in the central figure. The room
itself forms powerful grids, aligned with this vanishing point. The disciples, who show an array of powerful emotions, are arranged in four groups of three figures each.

Consideration of the power still inherent in a work painted in 1495 - reaffirms the viability of this discipline. No other medium could duplicate the individuality, spirituality, composition, skill and
sheer beauty involved in producing this work.

In the Last Supper Series which I embarked on in December 2004, I set out not to pursue the mathematics underlying the painterly composition, nor the subject of the Last Supper. I intended using it as an exploration of the visceral beauty in the decay of this very familiar composition. I feel my way around as an artist emotionally involved, rather than analytical, in the hope that the compositional mathematical formula will reveal itself by imperial method rather than scientific.

The method employed is simple, yet hopefully, effective. By using horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines, taped directly onto the canvas, to form the architectural composition, I repeatedly - from one
painting to the next - deconstructed the composition and then replaced the imagery with a personally explored idiom of the subject.

By removing the tape, the lines are etched as scars in the paint. The room itself becomes a vessel and setting for the story and in general for the world, as in latitudes and longitudes. The spiritual sensibility emanates from this abstract composition.

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