Bonnie Severien received the degree of Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) from the Royal Academy of Art (KABK) in The Hague in 2007. She received five nominations for the Royal Prize for Free Painting, and her paintings have been exhibited at the Royal Palace Amsterdam and the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague, among others. Recently, paintings were published in the French newspaper Le Monde Diplomatique. She made a number of art commissions for fashion house Claudia Sträter and her work is included in private collections as well as museum and corporate collections in the Netherlands, Belgium, England and America.

She writes the following about her work:

‘In an increasingly urbanized world, the need to find a balance between architecture and nature is more urgent than ever. My artworks depict a new paradise in which a dreamed symbiosis between modernist architecture and nature emerges.

Since childhood, I have always lived in newly built houses, an empty white cube around which nature had yet to grow. My need to create new nature and be completely surrounded by it, alongside mid-century buildings with their rigid order, laid the foundation for my paintings.

In each artwork, I create a paradise with the modernist architecture laced with utopian ideas and sublime, lush nature. Architecture and nature together become a new oasis, merging and reflecting into each other.

The open architecture gives space to nature, and plants and trees invite contemplation and inspire the viewer. The works evoke a mysterious, serene atmosphere; because of the physical absence of people, the works become quiet places that provide space to muse.’