24 july 2026, Flor Linckens
Turn up the volume: maximum presence at MPV Gallery
This summer, MPV Gallery in Oisterwijk presents the group exhibition 'Turn Up the Volume!', featuring work by more than twenty artists. As the exhibition's title suggests, many of the works on view share a similar quality: they demand attention and assert their presence. Appropriately, the exhibition's tagline reads: "Too much is exactly enough".
'Turn Up the Volume!' doesn't just refer to the motion of turning up the sound, it can also allude to the ways in which art can occupy actual volume, physical space. Nearly every work in the exhibition immediately draws the eye, in its own distinct way. Visitors encounter monumental paintings, bold materials, saturated and almost abrasive colour contrasts, as seen in the work of Peter Krauskopf, loud decontextualised advertising slogans by Cameron Platter (whose work is also held in the collections of MoMA and Zeitz MOCAA), provocative poses in the photography of Neeltje de Vries and reflective surfaces in the wall-mounted works of Willi Siber. The steel surface of another work by Siber is so heavily crumpled that it appears to be the result of violence, a massive implosion or an extreme change in air pressure. And Kartini Thomas's sculptures quite literally have teeth.
Among the exuberant colours and expressive forms are also a few works that seem to do quite the opposite. For instance, Bram Braam's soft geometric compositions in whites and pastel tones do not immediately command attention. Instead, they invite a slower, more attentive way of looking. The same applies to Cameron Platter's monochrome charcoal drawings. Together, they provide a welcome visual pause within an exhibition in which many of the works strive for maximum presence.
Several of the artists on display also appear to move beyond the conventional boundaries of a single discipline. Although the exhibition includes painting, photography, sculpture and installation, some wall-mounted works appear to behave more like sculptures, taking on an almost fluid appearance. Through their choice of unusual materials and distinctive finishes, several artists deliberately draw attention to the material qualities of their work.
