THE ARTIST Contemporary Artist Based in Scotland
Stephanïe Vandëm is an internationally recognised contemporary artist, born in Brazil and now based in Scotland. Working from her studio between the mountains and the sea, she creates unique paintings and semi-sculptural works for private collectors, interior spaces and public settings.
Her practice is rooted in the physicality of being human: the way we move, work, compete, care for one another and occupy our bodies. At a time when digital technology is steadily removing the body from many aspects of our working and social lives, her paintings return to forms of physical activity that were once essential to how we lived and understood ourselves.
Brazilian by birth and educated in Paris, London, New York and Florence, Stephanïe Vandëm worked extensively abroad before settling in the northeast of Scotland.
An award-winning artist with an international exhibition and collecting history, Vandëm’s work is held in private collections in the UK and internationally, as well as in luxury hospitality settings including The Fife Arms Hotel in Scotland.
Her practice has developed across painting, semi-sculptural work, mixed media, portraiture and installation and tutoring. She works primarily in oil, using traditional techniques alongside contemporary materials and processes to create unique, one-of-a-kind works.
Her portrait practice includes private commissions and formal portraiture, including a commissioned portrait of the Bishop of Aberdeen.
THE BODY, GESTURE & PHYSICALITY
At the centre of Vandëm’s practice is an interest in the physicality of being human: how we move, work, compete, care, survive and connect through our bodies.
Many of the activities that once shaped our daily lives and gave form to our identities are gradually disappearing. Physical labour has been replaced by technology; the body moves less through much of our working lives; and experiences once understood through strength, skill, endurance and physical contact are increasingly mediated through screens.
Her paintings return to this physical world. Fishing, lifting, competition, work, movement and care become ways of looking at what the body does and what the body communicates. But physical action is rarely the whole story. Her figures often remain inward, absorbed in their own concentration, vulnerability, strength or search for connection.
This tension between physical presence and inner experience extends across her work. In Fishing and Lifting, the body is engaged in labour, endurance and collective ritual. In Family Album, physicality becomes intimate through holding, feeding, gestation and care. The Last Supper explores gesture, movement and anticipation as individuals respond to an external event while remaining absorbed in their own inner worlds.
In Acknowledge Me!, the question of physical presence takes on another dimension: people can occupy a shared physical environment while remaining socially unseen, while the body can itself become a means of earning a living when conventional spaces of work are inaccessible. In Yellow Sneakers and Little Darlings, the absence or reduction of conventional facial portraiture allows gesture, posture, composition, movement and the body itself to carry the narrative.
Across these bodies of work, Vandëm is interested in what the physical body reveals—through its labour, gestures, relationships and presence—and in what may be lost when increasingly less of human experience is lived through the body itself.
PAINTING, MATERIAL & FORM
Vandëm’s paintings occupy a space between painting and sculpture. Traditional oil painting is combined with found and discarded materials, rope, nets and other physical elements, allowing the painted surface to extend into three dimensions.
These materials are often connected to the subjects themselves. They bring texture, weight and evidence of physical use into the work, reinforcing the connection between the painted figure and the world of labour, activity and lived experience from which the work emerges.
Each artwork is individually created and unique. Reproductions are not made, preserving the individual character and exclusivity of each original work.
COLLECTORS & INTERIORS
Vandëm’s work is held in national and international private collections and has been placed in luxury hospitality environments, including The Fife Arms Hotel in Braemar.
Her work is created for individual collectors as well as selected interior and hospitality settings, where original works can be considered in relation to the character and atmosphere of a particular space.
PORTRAIT COMMISSIONS
Vandëm has a strong background in portraiture and undertakes selected private commissions.
Her approach to portraiture goes beyond physical likeness, paying particular attention to gesture, presence and the quiet interior life of the individual. Her commissioned portraits include a formal portrait of the Bishop of Aberdeen.