Saminte Ekeland (1972, Rotterdam) lives and works in Rotterdam.

From an interview with Rolf den Dunnen (exhibition guide Van Bommel Van Dam)

"My work is characterized by a chemical marriage between material and style. The "canvas" is always transparent plastic. The canvas is therefore never the blank canvas, but always the canvas-in-the-world. My style has evolved over the past 15 years from abstract collages with pins and paper to figurative images of tights and sewing thread. In many works, the transparent in-the-world canvas also functions as a frame for the image. The source material is a selfmade photo or a news photo.
Layering in a quite literal sense is also characteristic for my style. It is akin to painting techniques where one layer is visible through the other. That style is partly driven by the content of my work. It tries to display the content in a specific way. That has been described as "vulnerable" and "liquid" while the subject is often very sharp and hard."

- Hugo Borst in 'The choice of...' on gallery viewer 2019

Who are your favorite artists on Gallery Viewer, and why?

'Then I choose Saminte Ekeland. She comments on history and the present with plastic, textile and sewing thread. She has an eye for loners fighting systems. Among them Mohammed Ali and Angela Davis. Beautiful work, both in thought and in execution.'

'The works of Saminte Ekeland are often photo-based, gossamer collages made in innovative techniques with enigmatic, expressive visual language''

- Rick Vercauteren director Municipal Museum Van Bommel van Dam, Venlo.

“Anyone who has followed the artistry of Saminte Ekeland over the past twelve years can conclude that she has now built up a consistent oeuvre. Her unique signature is not immediately recognizable due to the ambiguity of the work, both in the use of materials and in form and image, but rather traceable; only on closer inspection do the associations and references to earlier or other works become apparent.

Ekeland uses a diversity of working methods; collage, installation, object, video, and film. Her visual language always suggests vagueness and longing. In her most recent works, the artist 'draws' with a needle and thread, the yarn is spun from strung tights, the carrier consists of transparent plastic of various sizes. The images, we see portraits, figures and enigmatic stagings, sometimes grim, sometimes sensual, or both, provoke reflection and aesthetic wonder.”

- Anton Hoeksema, 2009

Portrait by Jan de Bruin