GEZIEN VAN DE RIET
About Gezien Van de Riet
Ernst van de Wetering, world’s foremost authority on Rembrandt, 2018:
“Gezien van de Riet is an exceptionally gifted and driven artist. Her relation to nature in all its manifestations is astonishing. The love with which she captures those manifestations in her paintings arouses a special feeling of happiness in the beholder.”
Although I wanted to become a painter, I also had a keen social interest and got my Master's Degree in Sociology, University of Amsterdam, subsidiary subject History of Art. This brought me to Bolivia. My work with indigenous people allowed me to make a lot of drawings and watercolours, and I started following evening classes at the La Paz School of Fine Arts. The first exhibitions also took place in La Paz. I was frequently featured and interviewed by national press, radio and television and got a commission for a wall painting in a new hospital near La Paz.
Coming back to Europe as an artist, I dedicated myself entirely at painting and drawing, mostly nature and people.
Since 2016 part of the Art Renewal Center as an ‘Associated Living Master’. Participation in exhibitions of renowned galleries and Museum Møhlmann, an important Dutch platform for contemporary realism. My works are included in its collection and I feature in its numerous books since 2001 Realisten; also in other books, newspapers and magazines.
In 2008 my monograph ‘Gezien van de Riet. In ’t leven vindtmen ’t al’ (In life one finds all) was published.
I was selected by the Dutch Portrait Award (2014), and was a finalist in the ARC competition (2015, 2019) and passed the first selection of Figurativas, MEAM (2015 and 2017). Added to Grandes Autores of website ArteLibre in 2018 and to the Chinese website Clatia in 2019. Participating in Exhibition ‘20x20’ of Galería ArteLibre, in Zaragoza and the Museum MEAM in Barcelona. In 2019 works of mine will be added to the collection of the Fundación Cultural del Banco Central de Bolivia.
As an editor I wrote about realism, in monographs and magazines. My blog focusses on art history issues. I gave lectures, f.e. at TRAC2018, The Representational Art Conference, that took place in Holland.