"The award-winning Dutch painter Barbara Hoogeweegen creates haunting and nostalgic works in oil on canvas, board, book covers and aluminium. The nuance in her abstract figurative style is matched with an almost classical approach to landscape, and she employs both forms to communicate themes around the human psyche, identity, nostalgia and solitude. There is a hauntalogical aspect at work also, in that she often works from found imagery, and thus engages the view with the slippage between the felt and the photographic".
John-Paul Pryor - art journalist
London-based artist Barbara Hoogeweegen was born (1968) in Amsterdam, and spent her formative years in Trinidad. She returned to Europe and studied at the Leo Marchutz School of Art in Provence (1987) and subsequently the Heatherley School of Fine Art, London (1997) where she won ‘Best Artist Award’ for her exceptional portraiture. She went on to complete a Master’s degree (2010) at City and Guilds, London, and during her studies delved into complex themes surrounding human relationships - drawing on theories from eminent voices such as French psychoanalyst, Jacques Lacan, to further develop her practice.
Working primarily in oils on wood and canvas, Hoogeweegen is known and celebrated for her use of vibrant colour in the landscape and figurative paintings she creates. Often she captures moments in time, be it the tranquility of a sunset or intimate and reflective scenes of everyday life, such as capturing the solitude of a figure alone on a beach, or reading a book on the underground - their focus only on the story unfolding on the pages in front of them. She conveys this kind of sentiment while using a vibrant palette and bold brushstrokes, a style shaped by growing up in Trinidad, and being inspired by the island’s colourful scenery. A particular influence was her mother’s close friend, leading contemporary painter Boscoe Holder. Watching Holder at work on the sun-soaked beaches of the island ignited Hoogeweegen’s passion for art and influenced her energetic palette. This defines her work today, inviting the viewer to engage with familiar scenes and be uplifted by the combination of colours that travel across her visualised landscapes. As she says herself; "I'm driven by a desire to connect with my audience on a deeply emotional level, to evoke universal feelings of humanity, intimacy and introspection, to make each piece a powerful sensory experience."
She has regularly shown her work in highly regarded galleries and art fairs since 2011, including the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 2020 (actually held that Autumn) where both of her selected works sold. She contributed to the ‘Portraits for NHS Heroes’ initiative during the pandemic, painting over 10 frontline workers in tributes that were met with deep appreciation and recognition across Britain, including a feature in The Economist. Beyond this, her work has graced the covers of several books for Penguin Random House, including Roddy Doyle’s The Women Behind the Door and Coco Mellor’s Blue Sisters.
A selection of exhibitions include: START Art Fair, London (2024); There Are No Wasted Days, The Anteroom, London (2023); The Quick Brown Fox Jumped Over the Lazy Dog, Cohort Gallery (online) (2022); Introductions, Long and Ryle Gallery, London (2021); Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London (2020); Moorwood Art Exhibition, Bruton, Somerset (2019); Spring Selection, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London (2018); Gorgeous, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London (2018); Water, Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London (2017); Christmas Show, Rebecca Hossack Gallery (2015); Inevitable, Rebecca Hossack Gallery (2015); British Art Fair, London (2014); For Youth, Royal College of Art (2012). Works on Paper Art Fair, The Science Museum, London (2012).