Under The Zee

Zee van Gils is a Dutch artist based in Cornwall, who unearthed her obsession for resin when she worked alongside the first surfboard shapers on Lombok island, Indonesia in a small fishing village in Lombok, Indonesia.

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Zee left home at 23 years old to reconnect with her creative side, which led her from The Netherlands to Australia and Indonesia, where she fell in love with surfing and her soulmate Anthony. She called Lombok ‘home’ for the three following years, living in raw and real circumstances, stripped from the modern day luxuries such as clean running water and the internet. It was plus 100, minus 100 with higher highs and lower lows. This was the kind of amplified and yet simplified way of living she had always imagined and everything just happened to align on this little island.

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Working as a surf photographer and creating surfboard art at the local shaping bay, Zee developed an undeniable urge to recreate the ocean’s character with resin. A medium which until then, she had never seen before. The tropical organic textures and colours she was surrounded by, has many similarities in the way resin flows. Soon enough all she could think and dream of were ways to capture these elements with resin and solidify their fluid motion.

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In the past five years of working with resin, Zee has refined her own techniques and developed her personal style, which she strives to continuously evolve; creating deep

glass-like layered paintings with light-reflecting details that appear to change with each movement of the observer. Merging aerial views with a vision of the ocean surface from below, Zee’s aim is to capture the light as it attenuates beneath the waves, providing you with an alternative perspective of mother nature’s textures. Our oceans connect us all, and through her art she can connect with people who find peace and joy in the water.

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In 2018, Zee held her first exhibition in Perth, Australia and her artworks have found homes in over fifteen different countries worldwide. For the past couple of months, a selection of her work has been on show at Strong Adolfos in Wadebridge, coordinated by Circle Contemporary Gallery. Zee’s journey went full circle last summer, when her artwork featured in a one-of-a-kind surfboard collaboration with award-winning shaper and her big 
inspiration, Matt Parker of Album Surfboards in California.

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Now as a full-time artist residing in Cornwall, Zee continues to tell a story of defiance; going against the grain to discover her own fluid movement, influenced by her natural surroundings. Her first exhibition in Cornwall will be held this summer and you are all invited to join!