07 february 2023, Flor Linckens
Three stunning series at Art Rotterdam
In this article we take you to the fascinating world of three artists who present their work at Art Rotterdam (9-12 February): Maiken Bent, Robin Wen and Anouk Kruithof. They make distinctive work in a multitude of media, including photography, painting and installation. On GalleryViewer you'll find the fair catalogue, with an overview of all of the works that are being shown at the fair.
Maiken Bent's sculptures are marked by a certain duality. In her work, the Danish artist plays with connotations about what is “masculine” and “feminine”, she places the functional versus the emotional and shows handmade details versus readymade elements. Hard and soft, and abstract and figurative components alternate in layered, raw, poetic and complex sculptures. They are part of an artistic investigation in which the artist asks questions about how objects work, about our close relationship with these objects and the ways in which we (excessively) worship their beauty — but also about the aforementioned contradictions. Bent uses heavy chains, locks, belts and carabiners for her sculptural compositions, but she also upholsters parts of the cold metal and adds cheerful colours and playful, draped shapes. She deforms and transforms her materials into works that represent a certain rigidity, but at the same time are marked by a certain dynamism and animism. In 2015, her work was shown in a solo exhibition at the KW Institute of Contemporary Art in Berlin and her work has been included in the collections of the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art and the ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, among others.
The French artist Robin Wen is fascinated by the world of the Free Party, an underground club scene (mostly non-profit) that rebels against the restrictions that are associated with the legal club world, for example in terms of closing times, maximum decibels (and heavy basses) but also, for example, the use of drugs. Often these illegal techno parties take place in remote places, where the younger generation can escape the rules — and the prevailing system of which those rules are such an integral part. Wen depicts this parallel world in the form of often hyper-realistic paintings, sculptures and drawings. Sometimes as semi-snapshots, skilfully executed in ballpoint pen on paper, sometimes in the style of the old masters. He shows young people who appropriate their own space, away from the control of society. Yet there is more to this than just disillusionment and a desire for debauchery, the artist also sees them as fragile, idealistic and politically involved. Moreover, in Wen's works these people are nearly always anonymous.
Anouk Kruithof | Galerie Valeria Cetraro
The Parisian gallery Galerie Valeria Cetraro shows the series "Trans Human Nature" by the Dutch artist Anouk Kruithof, who is known for her layered and interdisciplinary approach. Her practice includes sculpture, video, performance, installation, websites and interventions in the public domain. Kruithof is interested in topics that carry a certain urgency and social relevance, including climate change, but also privacy and government supervision. She often takes images from the digital sphere, which she then translates into a new medium or a fragmented or three-dimensional image. The series "Trans Human Nature" is about the relationship between ecology and technology and was inspired by a personal journey to Botopasi, a small, remote village in a fairly pristine part of the Amazon rainforest of Suriname. Kruithof lived there in a symbiotic way with nature and the inhabitants of the village. For this series, she looked up online stock photos with futuristic images of our technological future. She printed these images of things like humanoid robots on flexible materials such as fabric, silk and PVC and then temporarily made them part of the Surinamese landscape by immersing them in the river or by placing them between the plants. New, fused realities emerge in which the power of the Amazon meets “the next level of transhuman life”. Moreover, the photos in this series are created without any digital manipulation afterwards. This results in images that represent a certain harmony, but also a certain alienation. Some works have titles that evoke interesting questions and thoughts, for example "Where are the Black Bots?", "Cyberwellness" and "Polyphony is another word for harmony".
