Miko Veldkamp

Born in Suriname, raised in the Netherlands, and currently residing in New York, Veldkamp amalgamates cultural and visual elements from each place he has called home, into a dream-like world that transcends spatial and temporal boundaries. In doing so he reflects on race, privilege and historical relations. Applying light washes of colour and layering them to create varying degrees of translucency, the figures in his paintings often resemble himself, family members, or ghost-like entities. These shape-shifting and translucent pseudo- self portraits interact with each other in different roles, occupying a continually evolving psychological landscape of bicycles, dairy cows, nightclubs, checkered floors, forest spirits, tobacco and coca leaves. Playful, sensitive, dreamy and lucid, the paintings build homely and idyllic scenes that are reminiscent of Les Nabis and Expressionism.

Veldkamp paints directly onto the canvas without preliminary studies or drawings, allowing the work to unfold spontaneously for the viewer. His careful consideration of how elements are divided and connected within the picture plane creates a balance between studied complexity and playful lightness. Parts of his paintings are intentionally left unrendered, allowing a glimpse into the process of building up of the paint and conveying a sense of time passing, creating portals into different cultural spheres.

Miko Veldkamp was a resident at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam (2013) and a recipient of the Hodder Fellowship at Princeton University (2015). In 2021 he graduated from the Hunter College MFA painting program. Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include, Alice Amati, London, UK (2024); BB&M Gallery, Seoul, South Korea (2023); Nathalie Karg Gallery, New York, US (2023); Southwark Park Galleries, London, UK (2022); Workplace, London, UK (2022); Group exhibitions include Swivel Gallery, New York, US (2023); The Here and There, New York, US (2023); Workplace Gallery, Newcastle, UK (2023); Althuis Hofland, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2022); BB&M Gallery, Seoul, South Korea (2022); Regular Normal at Swivel Gallery, New York, US (2021).