The passion for color and nature is evident in every painting in Vanda Keren’s collection of works. She is drawn to the sea and plants like a butterfly to a flower, and this imagery often appears in her works, both in whole and in parts.
Keren is a colorist who masterfully expresses images with a realism that borders on abstraction, particularly when depicting a close-up of a butterfly wing or a tangle of leaves. She captures the colorful and formal essence of nature, creating dense compositions that offer familiar details imbued with a sense of mystery.
In some of her works, there is an echo of Henri Rousseau’s fantastic portrayals of nature with hidden secrets. However, instead of tigers peeking out from the foliage, Keren integrates human figures into the thicket, making them a part of the natural scene. The butterfly wings in her paintings merge with the flowers, forming a unified whole. Keren’s zoomed-in perspective allows her to break down images into spots and shapes, resulting in complex and rich compositions that take the viewer on both an aesthetic and a spiritual journey. ■
The writer is curator of Vanda Keren’s exhibition, titled ‘Over the Rainbow,’ at Artists’ House in Tel Aviv.
For more on her art, go to https://www.vandakeren.com/.
