EXPO: Considering plants and the question of extinction

Janise Yntema is a contemporary artist specializing in the ancient hot wax technique of beeswax encaustic painting. Working with beeswax brought an environmental awareness to the forefront of Yntema’s practice, leading to a concern for the loss of pollinators and plant biodiversity. 

Inspired by botanical classification systems of the 17th and 18th century, as well as 19th century daguerreotypes, Yntema creates portraits of red listed species to bring awareness to the beauty and sentience of the variety of critically endangered or extinct plants on the red list index. 

This series of beeswax and pigment drawings is an ongoing project on plant diversity, both from past geological eras as well as the present, with the intent to amass a selection of species from different geographic locations, creating an assemblage of global plant loss at this point.

Follow Janise Yntema on Instagram @janiseyntema or visit janiseyntema.com

Practical

Where? Square Tower - Castle of Bouchout (Meise Botanic Garden)

When? 13.05.23 - 17.09.23 

About

Janise Yntema's painting practice focuses on the ancient painting technique of beeswax encaustic,  For over 25 years Yntema has refined her use of this material and is known for her work in this technique. Continually intrigued by the fine line between figuration and abstraction, Yntema's images evolve through slow accumulations of semi-transparent wax layers, light permeating these works and becoming compositionally present. In 2018, Yntema was awarded the International Encaustic Artists' Vendéenne Award for recognition of outstanding contribution and advancement of encaustic art.

Yntema's inclusion of original photography has brought her work in encaustic to a contemporary platform, blurring the boundary between photography and painting,  Merging the digital with the ancient,  Yntema alters the "truth" of these paintings in questioning how we locate reality when the manipulated and objective are merged.