03 september 2021, Flor Linckens
4 Tips for the Opening of the Gallery Season
The gallery season will open in Amsterdam in the weekend of 3 to 5 September. No fewer than 38 galleries will festively open their latest exhibition. In this article we highlight a number of exhibitions.
Lumen Travo Gallery
In this exhibition on transparency, the German artist Pfeifer shows, among other things, his “Smokers”, a series of works made of aluminum foil and ink on paper, which he made during a stay in China. He took many photos there and noticed how smoking is an intrinsic part of daily life there: as a status symbol (some cigarettes even contain gold leaf!), but also as a social lubricant. He chose aluminum foil on the one hand because it is part of the packaging of the cigarettes and on the other as a symbol for the many cold, reflective elements in the architecture of the city where he stayed at the time.
Jannemarein Renout, Fresher, 2020, Galerie Bart.
Galerie Bart
Galerie Bart currently has programmed two exhibitions; on the one hand the work of Jannemarein Renout and on the other hand the paintings of Jeppe Lauge. The art project “Looking is Touching” by Jannemarein Renout is a visual quest for the identity of her father - who suffers from dementia - based on a large photo archive. She previously developed a photo technique where she operates hacked flatbed scanners that respond to daylight — a technique she named the renography. For this more recent project, she has shifted her interest to a universally hated household appliance that nevertheless turns out to have remarkable potential: the printer. Renout: “I consider the printer to be my brush.”
Danish painter Jeppe Lauge uses fragmentation in his works to examine our (disturbed) relationship with nature — an extremely relevant theme at a time when severe flooding, hurricanes and forest fires are the order of the day. Lauge does his preliminary research in nature, armed with a camera. He combines and edits those photos, creating a new image that forms the basis for a painting in which the paint is applied in thick layers.
Tomáš Libertíny, Bluescape Spring, 2019, Rademakers Gallery.
Rademakers Gallery
On the KNSM-laan in Amsterdam you can view a group exhibition with work by Simone Post, Stefan Gross, Diederik Schneemann and Tomáš Libertíny. These artists all relate to sustainability in their own way and in this exhibition, you will only see works made from residual materials. From a Ming-like vase from Smurf-merchandise to a vase that was co-created by a bee colony. These makers show us the beauty of products that we often neglect to look at, including chairs that go unsold in thrift stores. The inventiveness of these artists is inspiring and at the same time, it motivates visitors to think about their own role as polluters.
Peter Struycken, Kleurverhouding III, 2013, andriese eyck galerie.
andriesse eyck galerie
During the opening of the gallery season, this Amsterdam gallery is showing a series of new paintings by P(eter) Struycken, a visual artist who was responsible, among other things, for the iconic Dutch Beatrix stamp. He is known for the systematic ways in which he uses shapes and colour, often with the help of computers. Daylight plays an important role in his most recent work. Struycken: “In daylight, colours behave like frogs in a wheelbarrow. That is when I feel like a fish in the water.”
For more information about the opening of the gallery season, visit the catalogue on GalleryViewer.
