Frima en Heldens - Recent work
Joke Frima and Wim Heldens are contemporary realists, with great respect for each other's work. They would like to bring this together in the exhibition ‘Frima & Heldens’. Both are looking for an expression that connects
Joke Frima, ARC Affiliated Artist ARCLM, was born on 29 May 1952 in The Hague Joke Frima received her art training at the Academy of Visual Arts in Rotterdam (1969-1970) and the Academy of Visual Arts in Tilburg (1970 -1974). She then left for Florence, Italy, to hone her skills in the studio of the Grande Dame of figurative painting, Signorina Nerina Simi (Studio Simi) from 1976-1984. Joke Frima remained in Italy until 1985, dedicating herself to her studies and teaching. She returned to the Netherlands, where she uses her acquired classical skills for her own vision and preference as an independent artist.
She finds her subject matter in everyday beauty in nature. In an abstracted play of texture, rhythm, light and colour, Frima manages to evoke a sense of calm and harmony in a rather subdued subject while grabbing the viewer's full attention. In 1999, she moved to France in search of more space and freedom to grow her work. She currently lives and works in Vissingy in the Morvan, Burgundy, France.
Wim Heldens is one of the Netherlands' leading modern realists. His work is included in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery in London, the Arnot Museum in Elmira NY / USA, the Museo Europeo de Arte Moderno (MEAM) in Barcelona, the Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten in The Hague, the AMC Collection in Amsterdam, Museum De Domeinen in his birthplace Sittard, Ming Dian Gallery in Taipei Taiwan, and the collection of the Stadsschouwburg in Haarlem. Heldens' work was selected by MEAM for their biennial exhibition “Figurativas” in 2008, 2010, 2015(Honourable Mention), 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2023. In 2022, he won the ModPortrait competition, also at MEAM. Works of his were also selected for the prestigious BP Portrait Award Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London in 2008, 2010 and in 2011 he won the First Prize there, at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters at the Mall Galleries in London he won theMenena Joy Schwabe Award in 1998.
The subject of Heldens' work is contemporary man in his/her many differentiated relationships within modern Western society and to “the other”, with an emphasis on the interactions between people from different cultural or ethnic backgrounds. In doing so, he harks back to the typically Dutch tradition of realistically depicting the immediate living environment as it peaked in the 17th century. In addition, Heldens is an inspired portraitist with a strong portrayal of the psychology of the model. His work also stands out for its thoroughly-constructed imagery with refined fabric expression, which accentuates the ‘lifelike’ nature of his canvases.