The KunstRAI is a national art fair for modern and contemporary art from both Dutch and foreign artists. A one-audience fair with 60 high class galleries who reflect the diversity, quality and pluralism of the historic rich offer of Dutch art. I can't say I loved it but I do have a few favourites I'd like to share…
Oh by the way the catering was great, possibly the best meal I've had in Amsterdam so far. Superbly cooked roast potatoes with succulent seared chicken skewers with some kind of tomato chemoula. Sounds simple but it was delicious, and accompanied with a glass of red? Perfect.
Oh by the way the catering was great, possibly the best meal I've had in Amsterdam so far. Superbly cooked roast potatoes with succulent seared chicken skewers with some kind of tomato chemoula. Sounds simple but it was delicious, and accompanied with a glass of red? Perfect.
BILLY & HELLS - Portrait Photography
PRESS RELEASE - THE FAHEY / KLEIN GALLERY
Billy & Hells’ photographs exist in a world of in-betweens. Their deceptively simple, straightforward portraits convey a certain complexity. The archetypal characters depicted in their photographs—mothers, soldiers, cowboys, nurses, and teachers— possess an underlying sense of mystery, hinting at the duality of the sitter as well as the fictional world they inhabit. Although Billy & Hells’ images call upon historical and art historical references, their portraits are not burdened by the stipulations of historical recreations. Instead, seamlessly blending past and present, reality and fantasy, their photographs become a nostalgic diary, purposefully left open for interpretation.
The duo discovered what has become their signature visual style via a typical lab-accident story— by forgetting to take a black and white negative out of the developer, they inadvertently produced an intense image with colors that appear simultaneously rich and muted. Their portraits combine elaborate, hand-painted backgrounds and draw inspiration from countless samples of fabrics, color compositions, and clothing that generate the distinct mood for each portrait.
www.billyundhells.de
Billy & Hells’ photographs exist in a world of in-betweens. Their deceptively simple, straightforward portraits convey a certain complexity. The archetypal characters depicted in their photographs—mothers, soldiers, cowboys, nurses, and teachers— possess an underlying sense of mystery, hinting at the duality of the sitter as well as the fictional world they inhabit. Although Billy & Hells’ images call upon historical and art historical references, their portraits are not burdened by the stipulations of historical recreations. Instead, seamlessly blending past and present, reality and fantasy, their photographs become a nostalgic diary, purposefully left open for interpretation.
The duo discovered what has become their signature visual style via a typical lab-accident story— by forgetting to take a black and white negative out of the developer, they inadvertently produced an intense image with colors that appear simultaneously rich and muted. Their portraits combine elaborate, hand-painted backgrounds and draw inspiration from countless samples of fabrics, color compositions, and clothing that generate the distinct mood for each portrait.
www.billyundhells.de
MARJAN TEEUWEN - Architectural Art Installations
ABOUT MARJAN TEEUWEN (by Saatchi Art)
Crammed spaces is the dominant theme in the work of Marjan Teeuwen. She explores this theme through various media (photography and film) bound by a consistency of approach.
The rooms piled up to the ceiling with an inestimable quantity of objects. Too much for the eye to take in at once. The objects are combined according to function, texture and colour, and ordered in a ramshackle architecture of rows and columns. The balanced arrangement of the elements gives clarity and structure to the whole.
The ceilings, floors and walls are no longer recognisable as such, thus removing the certainty of perspective. Spaciousness and dynamism find their opposites in oppression and confinement. Perspective and flatness battle for our attention, influencing the orientation of the viewer, who is, as it were, sucked into the work. The works are characterised by their obsessive nature and their sense of claustrophobia.
The installations provide the material for the final photographs. The installations are build in a museam, an artist space or in the studio. In the recently finished Archief-series the materials are all from destroyed houses and furniture. The polarity between destruction (decay) and construction (creation) is on focus. Everything is broken and orderly arranged in small pieces in an archive. Here the colours are black and white, many ranges white or many ranges black. The diversity of the materials brings the paintings of the Dutch seventeenth century in memory.
The obsessive character of Marjan Teeuwens work places it outside the real world and within the tradition of art (history). Her themes are related to painting the still life, the interior and the self-portrait. Although the human figure is absent, its presence is nonetheless strongly tangible. The visible void is in fact crammed with life.
http://www.saatchiart.com/teeuwen
View this 44 minute documentary of her work - http://vimeo.com/30978617
Crammed spaces is the dominant theme in the work of Marjan Teeuwen. She explores this theme through various media (photography and film) bound by a consistency of approach.
The rooms piled up to the ceiling with an inestimable quantity of objects. Too much for the eye to take in at once. The objects are combined according to function, texture and colour, and ordered in a ramshackle architecture of rows and columns. The balanced arrangement of the elements gives clarity and structure to the whole.
The ceilings, floors and walls are no longer recognisable as such, thus removing the certainty of perspective. Spaciousness and dynamism find their opposites in oppression and confinement. Perspective and flatness battle for our attention, influencing the orientation of the viewer, who is, as it were, sucked into the work. The works are characterised by their obsessive nature and their sense of claustrophobia.
The installations provide the material for the final photographs. The installations are build in a museam, an artist space or in the studio. In the recently finished Archief-series the materials are all from destroyed houses and furniture. The polarity between destruction (decay) and construction (creation) is on focus. Everything is broken and orderly arranged in small pieces in an archive. Here the colours are black and white, many ranges white or many ranges black. The diversity of the materials brings the paintings of the Dutch seventeenth century in memory.
The obsessive character of Marjan Teeuwens work places it outside the real world and within the tradition of art (history). Her themes are related to painting the still life, the interior and the self-portrait. Although the human figure is absent, its presence is nonetheless strongly tangible. The visible void is in fact crammed with life.
http://www.saatchiart.com/teeuwen
View this 44 minute documentary of her work - http://vimeo.com/30978617
ROBBERT de GOEDE - Architectural Visual Artist
ARTIST STATEMENT
It starts with coincidence and intution. Arbitrarily drawing and combing geometrical shapes and figures, without judgement. From there on the search for connections and meaning starts, looking for a space where there is no room for distraction. The compositions are build anatomicaly where the rules of physics are ignored.
The goal is to find emptiness, a place in the psyche where creativy, revelation and happiness are found. I use rage and logic in an existential framework to make life more orderly and bearable. Concentration and meditation are inseparably connected with the making process and are a requirement to intensely experience the work. It is the physical experience that completes this. A mere aesthetic verdict doesn't do justice to my projects.
The viewer is pulled into a vacuum, an unsetteling puzzle. My installations are made to touch the viewer, pull you in and bring an intesifying spatial experience.
www.robbertdegoede.nl
It starts with coincidence and intution. Arbitrarily drawing and combing geometrical shapes and figures, without judgement. From there on the search for connections and meaning starts, looking for a space where there is no room for distraction. The compositions are build anatomicaly where the rules of physics are ignored.
The goal is to find emptiness, a place in the psyche where creativy, revelation and happiness are found. I use rage and logic in an existential framework to make life more orderly and bearable. Concentration and meditation are inseparably connected with the making process and are a requirement to intensely experience the work. It is the physical experience that completes this. A mere aesthetic verdict doesn't do justice to my projects.
The viewer is pulled into a vacuum, an unsetteling puzzle. My installations are made to touch the viewer, pull you in and bring an intesifying spatial experience.
www.robbertdegoede.nl
Images: ℅ artist website / Google images
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