Van Gogh AiR
Doreen Wittenbols (Breda) is a Dutch-Canadian visual artist, based in New York City. She works in specific series or projects, balancing her practice with single session observational/plein-air paintings and longer exploratory projects involving abstraction, varied surfaces, installation, performance and ephemeral art. Her life and work have been greatly influenced by frequent moving, particularly from immigrating to Canada as a child to returning to The Netherlands as an adult. Transition and transformation are recurrent themes in her work, including the shared reflective aspects of the “souvenir” and memento mori. During her work period at Van Gogh AiR, Wittenbols worked with museum shop objects with Van Gogh’s art printed on them, all the while wondering how Van Gogh himself would have viewed these appropriations of his work. Wittenbols' own musings on these objects reveal layered interpretations—souvenirs of souvenirs.