Oil on canvas, 48 x 48, $5500
Oil on canvas, 36 x 48, $4000
Oil on canvas, 36 x 24, $2200
Oil on canvas, 30 x 48, $3300
Oil on canvas, 30 x 48, $3500
Oil on canvas, 36 x 24, $1800
Olivier Van Zeveren
Olivier Van Zeveren first loved moving images. As a child in Gent, Belgium and later as a teen in Paris, he spent countless hours watching movies; drinking in the images, the ambiance, the manipulation of light. With his gift for drawing, Van Zeveren hoped that maybejust maybehe could illustrate movie posters and in some small way become part of the magic.
At 15, he was accepted at Institut Saint Luc in Tournai, Belgium where refined his instinctive painting style and began formal studies in photography. He received with Honors a Certificat de Qualification, along with counsel to master the New Art production technologies. Van Zeveren continued his studies with an advanced program for computer-based art production at Sup.Info.Com. in Valenciennes, France. Ironically, during this period, Van Zeveren prolifically produced old-fashioned art. Rebelling against technology, he created numerous works across mediums, including acrylic, water colors and many mixed-media pieces. It was also then that Van Zeveren discovered that by amplifying light he could take the prosaic from ordinary to extraordinary.
Van Zeveren went on to earn of one of four slots in a program for fine artists at Centre National de la Bande Dessinee et de lImage (C.N.B.D.I) in Angouleme, France. His artistic and technical prowess fused impressively in his thesis film, The David Hale Story, which received a nomination for Outstanding Animated Short Film at Imagina 1994.
After graduation, Van Zeverens work for top computer companies in Europe led him to travel extensively, including stints in Brussels, Amsterdam, Paris, Barcelona, Capetown, Johannesburg, Beirut, Moscow, Cairo, Dubai, Istanbul, Bucharest, Riga, Lisbon and Tel-Aviv. During his travels, he produced a body of photographic work that later became the basis for Contraste, a series of oils on canvas. This series unearthed what would ultimately become Van Zeverens process: capturing light-driven images on film which he then reinterprets on canvas.
Van Zeveren continues to produce a steady stream of work for private collectors and international exhibition. His paintings are part of the private collections of celebrities such as actor Keith Hamilton Cobb and animator Virginie Michel DAnnoville. His recent commissions include work for the Tony Award nominee Courtney B. Vance and his wife, Oscar nominee Angela Bassett.
