Stevie Dix

Stevie Dix ° 1990, Belgium, Lives and works in London, UK

Stevie Dix is often named an expressionist artist. Her thick and heavy brushstrokes certainly focus on movement and scale. She mainly makes use of oil paint, but her most significant material and subject are her emotions and senses. “My work is very subjective. It’s the kind of work that has little historical meaning, but lots of emotional meaning,” she says. Her abstract paintings are ‘big’, both in size and emotionally. The viewer is bound to be overwhelmed by such present and universally recognisable feelings, which however cause a certain unease, because they usually aren’t communicated in words, and rarely in accurately touching images.

To Dix, the expressionist style is a timeless way of communicating emotions. This might prove more urgent than ever in a time of rather superfluous communication. The thickness of her oil paint, which is spread out on the canvas three-dimensionally, makes the painting reach out to the viewer. The experimentation, spontaneity and chain of associations in her practice makes the expressionist aspect very contemporary. Dix is an autodidactic artist, and often relies on her collection of art books for inspiration. As a contemporary artist, it takes courage to confront art history, and on top of that, she fearlessly confronts her own emotions in order to communicate something bigger than her own artistic individuality.