World Fine Art Professionals and their Key-Pieces, 487 - Tamara Traxel
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World Fine Art Professionals and their Key-Pieces, 487 – Tamara Traxel
In the Albert Vogelzaal of the Hague Art Circle (Haagse Kunstkring) I recently saw the exhibition ‘3 Painters’ (3 Schilders). I knew two of them, Suzanne Bo and Paul Versteegh. I had interviewed them once (see elsewhere on this site). Tamara Traxel’s work caught my eye because of the beautiful colour combinations (orange-dark yellow-black-yellow-white / yellow-light blue-white). I met her in bar-restaurant Vascobelo, around the corner from the Art Circle.
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Her work is about connectedness, she says. Tamara: “Connectedness between different cultures, but also connectedness between generations. It applies to every person, being connected. You see it in music, in art, the connection with the greater whole. For some people it becomes spiritual. In addition to connectedness in my work, there is also a layering. There are literally more layers, but in addition the images/installations have multiple meanings. People are layered and connected, how they are.”
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Ancestors
Take Tamara herself. She has a multicultural background. She is Dutch-Surinamese, but was born in the Netherlands. Her father is Surinamese and her mother Dutch. And her grandfather is from China. “My foremother came from the slavery era. That connection continues in my story. I have internalized that. Everyone is connected to their ancestors and they live on in us. What is passed on? Why are we the way we are?”
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Tamara has been to Suriname. She visited her father’s house in Paramaribo. Such a beautiful wooden house with a veranda and a gallery. They are beautiful houses, but most of them are in need of some serious maintenance. The De la Parra family were the neighbors. Pim became a famous film director. Tamara’s foremothers were enslaved on Plantation Molhoop on the Cottica River. There are plans to renovate that plantation and set up a museum there. Sugar cane was grown on the plantation. “Very hard work.”
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Does Tamara have a key work?
She says that she has a key work every now and then, but she doesn’t notice it at the time itself, but when she looks back, in retrospect. “By working and doing research, something emerges in my work, of which I say ‘Interesting, I’ll continue with that’. Through research you come across new things. I always try to challenge myself. But the process is more important to me than the final result.”
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How long has she been an artist?
20 years. But she has always been an artist, she says. “My father was a drawing teacher, he also attended the Royal Academy of Art. He worked in primary education as a visual arts teacher. At home we had access to all kinds of materials to do crafts and draw in his studio. He was a member of a Surinamese art association in Amsterdam.”
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She graduated from the Royal Academy of Art (KABK), graphic and typographic design with the important part of Font design. After her studies she worked as a designer. In all kinds of collaborations, she also had her own agency. But she increasingly went in search of ‘free art’. For a while there was talk of a hybrid production, but she slowly phased out the graphic work.
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In the mornings she usually works in her studio. She draws in her sketchbook, or paints, there is always something to do. In the afternoons she also does other things to get ‘input’. She reads a book, she meets other artists, she goes to the museum. She regularly goes to concerts, such as LantarenVenster in Rotterdam and the BIM-huis in Amsterdam. Because she loves jazz. “My paintings are also a kind of jazz.” She names some favorites: Ambrose Akinmusire, trumpeter and composer, Kamasi Washington, saxophonist, John Coltrane and Miles Davis.
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Installations
She makes installations with another artist, Peggy van den Oudenaller. “We met in the Hague Art Circle (Haagse Kunstkring) when we were working on a project together. We decided to continue making installations as a duo. We have exhibited at the Art Circle and in other places such as Dordrecht and Krimpen a/d Lek. Together with primary school children we have made artwork from litter such as plastic bottles. We also made a knitted landscape.” In the spring of 2025 there will be an exhibition in the Art Circle in which they combine fabrics (cotton, wool) with clay / ceramics. She has started a ceramics course. “It’s nice to work with other materials, also 3D.”
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Finally, what is her philosophy?
“Connection/layering is the common thread in my work and also in my life. Art and life have become the same for me.”
https://www.tamaratraxel.com/
https://www.instagram.com/tamara_traxel/
https://www.facebook.com/Haagsekunstkring
https://inzaken.eu/2024/08/13/tamara-traxel-kunst-en-leven-is-voor-mij-hetzelfde-geworden/
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