About Monique:
South Florida-based artist Monique Lassooij was born and raised in The Netherlands and moved to Miami, Florida several years ago. Her paintings hang in numerous private collections in the US and abroad. In The Netherlands, Lassooij started out as an abstract painter, but over the years she developed a passion for figurative painting. After having studied with Dutch artists such as Pien Hazenberg and Henk Hubenet, she attended the Royal Academy for Fine Arts in The Hague and has gone on to receive several commissions and can be found in public places such as the Town Hall of the city of Scheveningen in The Netherlands. “My work explores the paradox in modern pop culture and society, sometimes clearly visible and sometimes through an underlining dichotomy interjected with humor,” explains Lassooij. Lassooij finds her inspiration in colors and how those colors affect the subject whether she is painting on canvas, wood or a wall. Her subjects are often not placed within a context-giving background, allowing a single or combination of colors and geometric shapes to illuminate the chosen topic. “I used to take the public transport every day here in Miami. One day I noticed that every time I saw children come into the bus, it stayed eerie silent. When I was a teenager, me and my friends were not silent in the back of the bus. But nowadays the children communicate with each other through their devices. And when something happens, they look up from under their eye brows. Then I realized that also the adults would have that same expression in that split second before they decide to continue on their device or pay attention. So all my paintings tend to have that expression, from under the eye brows, with a subtle hint of the underlying emotion combined with eyes larger than reality, I can safely say that the focus is on the eyes.” Originally published by The Miami Art Scene |
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