Pink Horizon (2019) by Vian Borchert is much more clearly a landscape. On the left side, we see a glass blue and white diagonal area, separated from a white blue strip by a black stripe. On the upper half of the diagonal, there is a series of roughly painted blue and whites, which leads upward, to a dark gray and pink horizon painted on a horizontal bar. This is a composition that leans in the direction of abstraction, but the sense of a place is very much clear. The colors do lend themselves to the feeling that we are in the midst of a winter wonderland, but the painting’s raw manner and its inchoate forms emphasizes the act of painting as much as it does an actual place.

The exhibition's title also connotes a potential dystopia, as a result of climate change, evoking the unsettling feeling that nothing will remain the same, and that soon we will nostalgically reflect upon the time when winter was still a substantial and lived experience in our lives.

Vian Borchert’s expressionist paintings, descriptive “visual poems” with a distinct choice of color, resonate, both gently and strongly, her personal affinity, feelings and mood.

Vian Borchert's expressionist paintings, descriptive "visual poems" with a distinct choice of color, resonate, both gently and strongly, her personal affinity, feelings and mood.

Empowering Women through Painting

iCanvas is proud to support this campaign with a feature of talented female artists. Vian Borchert is featured amongst the women artists

Acclaimed abstract artist Vian Borchert illustrates her journey through abstraction, and the world wide art movement her art has done.

Borchert’s work has evolved. “I’ve gone through many phases,” she said. “My work primarily was mainly done in oil, and in the figurative and abstract style.” Now she works in acrylic, which she prefers “due to its versatility, and the fact that it is a water-soluble medium.” While her earlier work was “categorized in the expressionist figurative genre,” in 2015, she “decided to focus and do works from my environment and the nature that surrounds me.”

Exhibiting her work is a source of great pride. “I love it when I see people gather in front of my artwork talking, analyzing and discussing the ins and outs, the lines and shapes of the piece,” Borchert said. “Sometimes I see people walking, then stopping, then coming close to the artwork, then going away, then coming back standing quietly looking carefully at the work. When I observe such behavior, I know the paintings have managed to do their work: capture the audience in an intellectual and thought-provoking way.”