Florence Deau 
Let’s take a walk In the Garden of Dutch artist Anna Surie. A romantic flowery landscape revealing what lies beneath life: violence, lust, dictatorship and death. No light without darkness, according to Anna.
Inspired by the artist’s original paper cuts artwork, “In de tuin” (In the Garden) is now a wallpaper design part of the fab NLXL LAB 3 collection.
About – Anna Surie (1971) is a Dutch artist and art director. In her teenage years Anna lived in Gabon, West Africa, with her parents. The life in Africa and the luscious colours of the rain forest made a permanent impression on her. When her parents moved to Scotland and Oman, Anna went to boarding school in the Netherlands. In her early twenties she completed an education in fashion and textile arts. One of her teachers recognized her talents and advised Anna to continue her studies at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague. Anna graduated in 1996.
As an artist, Anna has been working both solo and in artist collectives. With her collective Billy she participated at the Venice Biennale in 2013. Since 1999 she has been collaborating with entrepreneur Rick Vintage in several projects. Since 2010 she is the Art Director of his company NLXL, famous for it’s wallpapers and murals of designers like Piet Hein Eek and Studio Job.
Her work shows a fascination of contrast between the idyllic surface of bourgeois existence and the inevitable dark side of life. Although her techniques may differ – from 3d-fantasy worlds in boxes to textile and paper collages – her work always displays an ironic, almost cynical view of the world.
Photos © NLXL LAB
