Perry was awarded the Erasmus Prize 2021 amongst others because of his “ability to unite a divided public, showing us that art can be a platform for an open and inclusive debate.”
Indeed Perry goes to great lengths to be liked and to shock, to entertain and to criticize.
He does so using very different materials and genres, as you can see here; his messages are never authoritarian, let alone authoritative.
Although he does use texts, his visual language is very direct but without simplification.
The show itself presents some interesting examples of what Perry is known for, like ceramics, cloths, tapestries etc.
The exhibition being modest, the nature of the work is such that there is visually quite a bit on offer.
Personally i enjoyed it, and it is worth seeing when you happen to be in the museum.
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bottom: Pim Piët, 1983; middle left to right: 2011, 1993, Kim Lim, 1993; top: Pim Piët, 2021
Pim Piët (1954) is an artist who is fully aware of the fact that he lives in a world with other artists, amongst others.
Pim Piët, 2007
They too shape his artistic framework and he gives in to that with sincere attention.
Pim Piët, 2021
Moreover, he has been a keen art collector during his artistic career.
left to right: Pim Piët, 2020, 2008, 2006, Wieteke Heldens, 2016
Presently at Bos Fine Art he shows a modest retrospective of his own works in combination with examples from his collection of works by others.
Pim Piët, 2012
It gives a very lively idea of his own artistic development, ranging from 1977 to 2022, combined with works by famous names like Ellsworth Kelly (1923-2015) or Lawrence Weiner (1942-2021), and young artists like Wieteke Heldens (1982) and Fabiola van den Berg (1995).
Jan Schoonhoven, 1987
In these works by others there is, of course, a great deal of abstraction, but also of conceptualism, and Piët shares an ironic sense of humour with some of them.
left: Fabiola van den Berg, 2021; right: Pim Piët, 2015
The oldest work by Piët in the exhibition is a work from 1977 which hangs as a kind of tribute next to a painting by Tomas Rajlich (1940), his teacher in the 1970s, who had a decisive influence on his ideas about art making.
left: Tomas Rajlich, 1974; right: Pim Piët, 1977
Since then a lot has happened, and a lot is still happening as his recent works show.
Pim Piët, 1998
There are influences of music and sound, and of non-western cultures, especially the Japanese.
Melissa Cruz García, 2014
The exhibition goes with a fine small but comprehensive catalogue showing most of the exhibited works, but if you want to see the real thing you have to be quick. The works are still on show over the weekend.
Probably they are neither the last nor the best ones, but every artist should do the best to his/her own standards, and create as if he/she is the last.
Bobbi Oskam
Thijs Jaeger (1990) and Bobbi Oskam (1990) seem to be unlikely partners in a duo-show, but Hok Gallery clearly didn’t mind and they are both their own lasts and bests.
Thijs Jaeger
You could consider works by both artists as manifestations of the inner self, but of course that is much too sweeping a statement to define a common denominator of their imaginative worlds.
Bobbi Oskam
You might say Jaeger uses his incantations to exorcise Oskam’s nasty dreams.
Thijs Jaeger
You might also say Oskam’s drawings are there to bring Jaeger’s objects back to the real world.
Bobbi Oskam
Whatever you want to do or figure out, fate will always knock on your door, undeterred and undeceived by amulets and fetishes.
Thijs Jaeger
Your dreams will haunt you, as reality will also haunt you anyway, and in the end you’d better experience them for what they are and see their aesthetics.
Bobbi Oskam
Well, of course, both artists’ present Gris-Gris show is not all that heavy-hearted.
Thijs Jaeger
Hok Gallery always guarantees a bit of a tongue-in-cheek approach, such that its visitors will never be seriously pounced on by any demons.
Bobbi Oskam
So, feel safe to see it all, today, tomorrow or on Saturday (3-4-5 March).
Bobbi Oskam, Thijs Jaeger
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Art in corona times 1. 2 May 2020, SinArts Gallery
From May 2nd 2020 onwards i started categorising photo reports about exhibitions in Villa Next Door under the header Art in corona times.
Art in corona times 4, 15 May 2020, Topp & Dubio
Art in corona times 7a, 4 June 2020, A.R. Penck, Kunstmuseum, The Hague
Art in corona times 11, 23 June 2020, Mazen Ashkar, 1646
Art in corona times 18, 29 July 2020, Janice McNab, Stroom
Art in corona times 23, 19 August 2020, Caravaggio, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
By that time the corona restrictions were already intensely experienced by the arts sector. These days Covid-19 is still there but the heaviest lockdown measures have been lifted, so Art in corona times will be history for the time being. Art in corona times started with a visit to SinArts Gallery . I hadn’t seen Alex Lebbink, SinArts’ gallerist, for quite some time and he had organised time slots for individual visitors. The idea was that the corona measures would be very temporary and that i would use the label Art in corona times for a few postings, just to see how galleries and other art platforms were doing during the crisis and after that it would be more or less business as usual. However, that proved to be quite naive. Corona became a way of life in which the arts were not seen as an essential need in life. At first artists and other professionals were more or less empathetic to that idea, but as the crisis went on and on, the government’s sheer lack of interest for the arts became a thorn in the flesh of many an art professional, especially after the health minister’s remark that if you cannot go to the theatre you might as well stay at home and see a dvd, as if there was no difference between the two. Last week i posted Art in corona times 101 with some extra footage of the interesting exhibition about Aad de Haas at the Chabot Museum in Rotterdam and that was the last one under the corona banner.
Art in corona times 29, 17 September 2020, Steamboat, Trixie
Art in corona times 34, 28 September 2020, Jessica de Wolf, Artist Support Fair, Quartair
Art in corona times 37, 13 October 2020, Robbin Heyker’s Birding Club, featuring Arjan Dwarshuis
Art in corona times 43, 7 November 2020, Simphiwe Ndzube, Nest, The Hague
Art in corona times 48, 30 November 2020, Sjimmie Veenhuis, …ism
For those who want to have an idea of what was on show during the pandemic Art in corona times is easily locatable in Villa Next Door.
Art in corona times 52, 14 December 2020, Ellen Yiu, A Finger in Every Pie, Royal Academy students’ pre-graduation show
Lockdowns etc are over now but that doesn’t mean the worries about this or any other virus are gone.
Art in corona times 56, 20 February 2021, Ingrid Rollema, PIP Den Haag
Art in corona times 59, 14 March 2021, Paul van der Eerden, Romy Muijrers, Galerie Maurits van de Laar
Art in corona times 64, 9 April 2021, André Kruysen, Galerie Ramakers
Art in corona times 68, 30 April 2021, Zhang Shujian, PARTS Project
Art in corona times 75, 11 June 2021, Marion van Rooi, Jan Wattjes, Luuk Kuipers, Quartair
Covid-19 may return with a more dangerous version, and an altogether new and equally or more dangerous virus may come. The question is not if it will come, but when it will come. The bird flu virus being one of the most obvious contenders in the real viral world. Another worry in the aftermath of corona is the questionable urge of authorities to control everything and everybody, if possible with modern technology. This urge is understandable as authorities of any political colour try to influence social processes for the benefit of society as a whole. However, even before the Corona crisis it has already been proven that this urge to control has turned against citizens, as a holy faith in the objectivity of modern technology, market forces and a reduction of the state to a kind of control device has replaced a democracy in which different opinions in society play a role. Villa Next Door is not the place to make a deep analysis about society, politics, the free market, modern technology, the influence of debilitating conspiracy theories, and a considerable chunk of society that rather believes in so-called alternative facts than in real facts, that prefers evil tales to science. However this is the framework – as i see it – in which art is made, seen and presented today in this country, and i want to be clear about the context in which i give you my reports about exhibitions and art in this blog. After all, you don’t have to agree, but you should know. Another worry is the new situation with the war in Ukraine. One might suggest i should replace Art in corona times with Art in war times. However, the Netherlands are at the moment not at war with any other country. Also, it should be said that another devastating war is going on in Yemen for seven years now. Although this is principally a civil war, it has become internationalised, with other countries in the Middle East intervening. The conflict in Ukraine may have a global significance, or rather, it will have, even if the war itself remains physically limited to Ukraine. That, together with the devils unleashed during the Corona crisis, will bring us interesting but also ominous times. So, in the mean time, i repost some pictures here of some highlights of Art in corona times.
Art in corona times 81a, 12 July 2021, Joseph Palframan. Royal Academy, The Hague
Art in corona times 82b, 26 August 2021, Farkhondeh Shahroudi. Sonsbeek 20-24, Arnhem
Art in corona times 88, 27 September 2021, Yaïr Callender, Kadmium, Delft
Art in corona times 95, 17 December 2021, Casper Verborg, Galerie Helder
Art in corona times 97, 21 January 2022, Yesim Akdeniz, Dürst Britt & Mayhew
Hope to see you soon in real life or in this blog, stay healthy and sane, and keep your eyes open!
Art in corona times 101, 16 February 2022, Aad de Haas, Chabot Museum, Rotterdam
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As I’ve written quite extensively about the exhibition in VLR, I leave you here with some impressions of the show, but not without the strong recommendation to visit it yourself.
French postmodern philosopher Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) famously paid attention to the importance of margins around texts and the space in between the words.
However, visual artists have always been aware of what is and is not in between the words and in the margins since medieval times.
Texts are not just words that can be embellished with illustrations; they are visual entities themselves that provoke visual reactions.
To Albrecht Genin (1945-2013) texts – not just in the shape of words, but also of music scores and even cash books – were an important source of inspiration.
As far as a book page or a letter are products of the human mind, Genin was one of those artists who take that a step further, as if one way of imagination calls for another.
Presently Genin’s drawings are on show at Livinstone Gallery in an astonishing abundance.
Every scribbled page has become a new story under Genin’s hands.
Indeed, each of his works is worth a close examination.
They are not just products of imagination, they also invite the viewer to use his/her own imagination.
The stories are not just his, they are yours if you take a close look at them yourself.
Ruri Matsumoto
The gallery also shows a preview of its presentation at Art Rotterdam, which has been postponed to May because of this winter’s Corona lockdown.
Amongst them are some recent surprising paintings by Van Erp he already showed in an exhibition last autumn at the gallery, which show ominous beach scenes that seem to echo the current era.
Aaron van Erp
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Some things in life are as they are, but they don’t always seem what they are.
One of these things is the way we see.
Our stereo view gives us an idea of space helped by linear perspective.
We tend to take this linear perspective for granted as a tool to automatically measure the distance around us.
However, perspective can play tricks on us and as such it has been used in art since the Renaissance.
By the end of the 15th century you can almost speak of a perspective-mania amongst painters; they all wanted their viewers to believe their paintings were three dimensional.
Architects have also known for centuries how to create space that isn’t really there by means of linear perspective.
There are many examples in architecture, one of the most famous is St. Peter’s Square in Rome which looks bigger than it really is as Bernini manipulated the height of the colonnades around it.
And that is the idea that clearly obsesses Reinoud Oudshoorn (1953): creating space that doesn’t exist.
Maybe that isn’t really the right description as space is already there; it can’t be created, whatever architects are trying to tell you.
Space can only be limited by walls and signs. In Oudshoorn’s work only these signs remain.
They are the signs of space that has never existed, they are the signs that create space in the mind of the viewer.
And it is real space in the sense that the signs are not two-dimensional, but it is not the space it pretends to be. Space, as anything in art, needs to be pretended.
Oudshoorn’s works look like carefully made and measured situations, but they are not just clever stuff; they invite you to look actively; it’s the art of seeing with its own playfulness and its own aesthetics.
No, let’s not talk about corona; no let’s not, please let’s not.
Marwan Bassiouni
There is actually art on show which will present other aspects of the world to you which are as elementary (or even more….) as any virus and all policies around it.
Yesim Akdeniz
At the moment at Dürst Britt & Mayhew’s there is Orienting Around with works by Yeşim Akdeniz (1978) and Marwan Bassiouni (1985) which deal with subjects associated with what was once called the Orient, or the Near East – today called the Middle East, which is just as remarkable but has nothing to do with the movement of tectonic plates.
Yesim Akdeniz
Akdeniz shows five works from her recent series of textile works called Self portrait as an orientalist carpet – four of which are quite big and monumental – and an installation, also with textile.
Yesim Akdeniz
Usually self portraits are approached as a kind of revelatory documents, but taking into account that any personal work of art is a kind of self portrait, Akdeniz’ self portraits are as revelatory as any other work of art.
Yesim Akdeniz
As such Bassiouni’s photographs are as much self portraits, and they are revealing that what cannot be revealed: a divine presence, just a “presence”, a metaphysical world, a parallel world, or whatever one might call it.
Marwan Bassiouni
On show are five works from his much acclaimed series New Dutch Views, which present the Dutch urban landscape through the windows of mosques.
Marwan Bassiouni
While Bassiouni catches both the inner and outer world in his photographs, Akdeniz shows the materiality of who she is or isn’t, might or might not be, is or isn’t presumed to be, but in the end her works are as mysterious as the unseen in Bassiouni’s photographs, and have fortunately very little to do with the lingering identity-and-self hype of our era.
Yesim Akdeniz
There is also one work on show from Bassiouni’s Prayer Rug Selfies series (presented before at Dürst Britt & Mayhew’s and discussed in Villa La Repubblica here).
Marwan Bassiouni
There is however a difference between Prayer Rug Selfies and New Dutch Visions in that the Selfies – apart from being in black and white – are smaller, more intimate, more based on performance, while the Visions are more monumental and collage-like.
Marwan Bassiouni
In their monumentality they are a very strong counterpart to Akdeniz’ Self portraits.
Marwan Bassiouni
Her textiles are probably the biggest surprise of the show; in their monochrome monumentality they tend to absorb the viewer almost immediately, and sturdy as they look like, they are sensitive and mysterious at the same time.
Yesim Akdeniz
In the front space of the gallery Pieter Paul Pothoven (1981), in his show TK15223, presents four jigsaw pieces of his lapis lazuli project, which he took up again after a long period of more intellectual work.
Pieter Paul Pothoven
Once raw material for the most brilliant and colourfast blue in the art world, ultramarine, which had to be imported all the way from Afghanistan, and which was as such more valuable than gold, lapis lazuli is still mined in Afghanistan, as Pothoven saw when he was there in 2009.
Pieter Paul Pothoven
He had some the raw lapis lazuli containing rocks transported back home and last year he grinded them and separated the costly blue material from the other components in different ways.
Pieter Paul Pothoven
He retained the grinded structure of the different variants of the more and less pure ultramarine as well as dust of the stone from which the costly blue was extracted, and framed it with postal material and crates with which the stones had been shipped, which, in Pothoven’s work, has a more metaphorical meaning of history, value, hard labour and the different faces of power.
Pieter Paul Pothoven
Hence both very fine shows tell something about “the Orient”, its historic and its present day perceptions, but, what’s more, they show works by three artists with great imaginative power, which we need in these dark days.
Yesim Akdeniz
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