Orbiva
Introduction
At its core, this body of work is about the act of seeing—of reckoning with change, with the passage of time, with the shifting perception of the self. It is about motherhood, about endurance, about the quiet, persistent effort of holding on.
Works
Catalogue
Essay
Knocknarea looms over van der Grijn’s daily landscape, an omnipresent force etched into the fabric of Sligo’s mythology. Queen Medb’s tomb, its monumental presence shaped like a breast—like a nipple—carries an unmistakable duality: both a symbol of defiant strength and an embodiment of the maternal, the bodily, the lived. Her burial—standing upright, forever facing her enemies—transcends mere folklore. It becomes a metaphor for resistance, for the unwavering act of standing against oppression, against imposed narratives.
This motif of the body, particularly the female form, recurs throughout van der Grijn’s work. In the spirit of Bosch, where the grotesque and the divine intermingle, van der Grijn engages with the sagging breast—unidealized, unfiltered—as a more truthful representation of womanhood, of motherhood, of time’s undeniable passage. Here, the body is neither fetishized nor diminished but observed in its fullness: still vital, still radiant, yet softened by experience, shaped by use.
In contrast, the tongue—once a site of articulation, of verbal power—morphs into an abstracted, almost flaccid form, a limp appendage, a shapeless penis. There is humor here, but also a quiet commentary on bodily realities, on the interplay between function and aesthetic expectation.
Floating figures drift through these compositions—fragmentary selves, specters of the past. They are remnants of insecurity, echoes of former versions of the self. They exist as shadows and ghosts, tethered yet detached, observing and being observed.
Art has the unique ability to hold time in its layers, to be both a record and a living dialogue. Cléa van der Grijn’s work embody this dynamic tension – between what has been, what is, and what will unfold. Her canvases are more than surfaces, they are vessels of memory and transformation, each one a portal inviting the viewer to explore the spaces (in)between. Presence and absence. Permanence and transience.
Two canvases within this collection date back to 2007. Originally conceived as “ Before it happened” evolving in 2025 to become “Still Happening”. This slight shift in renaming reflects a deeper metamorphosis – not just in the works themselves, but in the way they interact with the viewer. The deconstructed paintings reveal shadows and markings allowing new meanings to emerge. The face that once occupied the frame has transformed into a mountain- a form so familiar it invites us to reconsider the act of seeing itself.
Delicate, digitally embroidered pieces, reimagined from van der Grijn’s previous paintings, accompany the new works. These pieces evoke a profound sense of transformation and impermanence, simultaneously familiar and altered. They reflect the ephemeral nature of recognition- always the same, yet never quite so.
At its core, this body of work is about the act of seeing—of reckoning with change, with the passage of time, with the shifting perception of the self. It is about motherhood, about endurance, about the quiet, persistent effort of holding on.