From gods to puffer jackets

From gods to puffer jackets: the world of Nina van de Ven

In June, City café Benee welcomed four artworks from Tilburg artist Nina van de Ven. Her sculptures are intriguing, layered, and bring the human and the mythical closer together. But who better than Nina herself can tell what drives her work?

Nina grew up in Tilburg, in a creative household where dancing, drawing, and dressing up were the norm. Her parents, both trained in the arts, gave her the space and trust to follow her artistic curiosity: from her first crafts at home to her education at St. Joost. “My creativity was never seen as nonsense,” she says. “It was just allowed to be.”

This attitude is evident in her work: uncompromising, thoughtful, and full of symbolism. Nina has a distinctive style: figurative graphics (print art), rooted in ancient stories. “I see my work as a kind of collage of everything I read and research,” she says. “Often mythical stories with connections to the contemporary. I collect knowledge (visual and textual) and process it into one image.”

Heleen Anna Fotografie

Tilburg in graphic form: Stretching Pete

One of the works is called Stretching Pete. The tile tableau depicts a figure filled with tattoo-like symbols and alienating proportions. The piece is based on a notable Tilburg resident from the early twentieth century: Piet Stams, better known as Peestamp.

Peestamp is mentioned in the Tilburg Nicknames Book, a humorous collection of colorful figures from the city. He was known as a sly but charming conman with an endless trade in rags, matchboxes, and kids' goats. A typical trick of Piet? Entering cafes with his son as the "dancing bear" on a chain. Ultimately, he even sold his own skeleton to a doctor to pay his medical bills.

In Stretching Pete, Nina weaves those anecdotes with symbols. “I love details that have a symbolic meaning but are not unambiguous,” she says. Given the popularity of this work, it is part of the exhibition until March 22: Fantastic Beasts at Museum van Bommel van Dam, located in Venlo.

Wonderspin

Stretching Pete is replaced by the artwork Wonderspin. “Just like Stretching Pete, Wonderspin is also a remarkable Tilburg resident mentioned in the Tilburg Nicknames Book. Mevrouw van Dijk was her real name,” Nina recounts. “It was said that she could only get on the bus sideways. With this brief description, combined with her nickname, I imagined a wonderfully hybrid person, someone who, with upright legs and bent knees, cautiously shuffles sideways onto the bus. In her hand, she holds a coin with the letters ‘BRAVO’, the name of public transport in Brabant (Brabant Vervoert Ons). Also depicted on the coin is Saint Dionysius, the patron saint of Tilburg. The Wonderspin does not engage in fare evasion.”

The exhibition: every work a unique world

In city café Benee, four works by Nina are on display.

The order in which the works are hung is not coincidental. “I wanted a gradient in color,” Nina explains. “From black and white to color accents to full color. A visual transition.” Yet there is more that connects the works than just color: there are also parallels in theme, symbolism, and materials.

Two black-and-white prints: one work, Diana landing on the peeper, stems from her fascination with mythology. It refers to the story of Diana and Aktaion, in which the hunter Aktaion unexpectedly sees a bathing Diana during a hunt and is severely punished for it. A nice contrast to the other print hanging beside it, Mummer IIII, which has a softer and more feminine character.

Muscle manipulator: smaller figures in black lines and bright accents, wrapped in voluminous jackets that Nina calls ‘muscle manipulators’. “They simulate a muscularity that isn't there.”

Stretching Pete: the only work in color, where the historical and the absurd past of notable Tilburg resident ‘Peestamp’ come together. The work is on loan until March 22 at Museum van Bommel van Dam in Venlo.
Stretching Pete will be temporarily replaced by Wonderspin. The ceramic piece is based on this nickname of Mevrouw van Dijk, who was said to only be able to get on the bus sideways. Nina imagines a wonderfully hybrid person, someone who, with upright legs and bent knees, cautiously shuffles sideways onto the bus.

Signature without a signature

Those who look closely will discover symbols, ornaments, and signs in each work that suggest something without fully revealing it. That is Nina’s way of signing. “They are traces of stories. I collect them, not physically, but in my head.” And so Benee gets a piece of Nina’s archive: a mix of the past, imagination, and the everyday, transformed into images that continue to intrigue.

The works of Nina van de Ven will be on display at Stadscafé Benee starting June 28. Drop by, order a coffee, and immerse yourself in the world from Peestamp to puffer jackets.

Interview