Olivia Niuman – Elastic Fluid
About this activity.
Afslag BLV presents Elastic Fluid, a solo exhibition by Dutch-American artist Olivia Niuman, from September 6 through November 15, 2026. The exhibition brings together recent and new paintings in which paint is approached not only as a means of representation, but as an autonomous, mutable material in its own right.
Niuman’s paintings emerge at the intersection of chance and intervention. She gives the paint space to generate movements of its own, while intervening when an opportunity arises to redirect the material. In this way, a continuous tension develops between control and surrender, between fluidity and resistance.
The title Elastic Fluid refers to a concept from alchemy: matter that flows as a liquid or gas while simultaneously storing energy and offering resistance when stretched or deformed. This duality also serves as a metaphor for Niuman’s painting process: open and intuitive, yet marked by moments of tension, friction, and resistance at which a painting can take a new direction.
This constant movement is visible on the surface of the works. The paint ranges from thin to thick, transparent to opaque, and glossy to matte. At times, the surface is smooth and saturated; at others, rough, granular, or muted. The works also vary considerably in scale and proportion, from intimate canvases to monumental ones.
Although Niuman’s paintings do not refer to recognizable figures or scenes, they evoke associations with processes in nature and the material world. Their surfaces may recall copper patina, eroded rock formations, algae blooms in hot springs, or crystals forming inside a test tube. The focus is not on depicting these phenomena, but on making visible a similar process of transformation: the moment when material, under the influence of time, environment, and intervention, takes shape as something new.
With Elastic Fluid, Niuman explores how far a painting can be released from control without losing its direction. The works exist precisely at this threshold: between chance and intention, between fluidity and resistance, and between material and meaning.
About the Artist
Olivia Niuman (Boonton, USA, 2000) is a Dutch-American artist who explores the transformative possibilities of paint. Her painting practice brings together attention, chance, material, and suggestion as ways of exploring meaning beyond language.
Growing up between a Dutch and an American family, Niuman developed an early interest in political philosophy and in the ways people make meaning of the world and form their beliefs. This curiosity continues to guide her painting practice, in which she explores these questions not through language, but through material and painting.
Niuman holds a bachelor’s degree in Art History and American Studies from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and a master’s degree in Painting from the Frank Mohr Institute in Groningen. Her work has been exhibited in the Netherlands and the United States and is held in private collections in both countries.
Museum Belvédère.
Location.
Afslag BLV
Minckelersstraat 11
8442 CE Heerenveen
www.museumbelvedere.nl/nl/