Collections
Flor Linckens
Abstract art and a fascinating concept or material
Flor Linckens is a cultural historian and an avid art collector - minimal and geometric abstract art in particular. In addition to her work as an editor and online marketeer for GalleryViewer, she works as a freelancer for the Van Abbemuseum, Art Rotterdam, Unseen and Young Collectors Circle. She founded Galeriereporter, Cultuurambassadeurs & Nordic Days, for which she reports and creates inspiring collaborations between culture-focused instagrammers, bloggers and vloggers — and she is always in the know of what is going on in the art world. In this collection, she explains her love for contemporary abstract art.
When Ellsworth Kelly started using unconventionally shaped canvases - all of which evoke a perfect amount of tension - in the 1950s and 1960s, he was a pioneer in the art world. In doing so, he blurred the boundaries between painting and sculpture, and effectively challenged us to rethink our notions of what art can be. The same goes for several other modern abstract and minimal artists. But if a lot of abstract art has been tried before, how can you, as a contemporary artist, still leave your own distinctive trademark on your abstract work? For me, this would be best achieved by adding a theoretical, conceptual framework or by using remarkable materials. For this collection, I selected 5 works of art for which the artists built on a fascinating concept and / or material. In many cases, they even manage to convey a critical message between the lines.
When Ellsworth Kelly started using unconventionally shaped canvases - all of which evoke a perfect amount of tension - in the 1950s and 1960s, he was a pioneer in the art world. In doing so, he blurred the boundaries between painting and sculpture, and effectively challenged us to rethink our notions of what art can be. The same goes for several other modern abstract and minimal artists. But if a lot of abstract art has been tried before, how can you, as a contemporary artist, still leave your own distinctive trademark on your abstract work? For me, this would be best achieved by adding a theoretical, conceptual framework or by using remarkable materials. For this collection, I selected 5 works of art for which the artists built on a fascinating concept and / or material. In many cases, they even manage to convey a critical message between the lines.
2 Media items ᛫ 7 Available artworks
3 Shows ᛫ 0 Highlights ᛫ 0 Recommendations
Remy Jungerman's work is remarkable because he rethinks the visual language of modernism and De Stijl in a completely new way. For his sculptures he uses the geometric patterns and shapes of the Maroon people in Suriname: a group of enslaved West African people who fled captivity and hid in the Surinamese rainforest. Jungerman feels a personal connection to the Maroon: they are his ancestors through his mother's side of the family. Jungerman combines their traditional designs and imagery with Western modernism and wants to reconsider that same modernism - which is worth criticising in itself! At the same time, he adds materials from the Maroon tradition that represent a religious value. The artist effectively combines two different histories (and multiple modernities?) in an innovative and thought provoking way.
(Galerie: Galerie Ron Mandos)
(Galerie: Galerie Ron Mandos)
3 Media items ᛫ 33 Available artworks
6 Shows ᛫ 1 Highlights ᛫ 0 Recommendations
This triptych by Simone Hoàng was preceded by a fascinating research process, inspired by a passport photo of her biological mother that didn’t really resemble her in terms of colour. This was because the first colour techniques by Kodak were not able to print the colours brown, red and yellow in a lifelike manner. After all, white people have always been the norm, so as long as they looked good on screen/in print, everything was fine. Hoàng puts an end to this bizarre notion and considered it a starting point for her research. She processed and separated the emulsion layers one by one in a chemical process, revealing browns, reds and yellows - essential for creating different skin tones. With this process, she regained control of her memory, that she could ‘fix’ now.
(Gallery: Galerie Fontana)
(Gallery: Galerie Fontana)
4 Media items ᛫ 2 Available artworks
2 Shows ᛫ 0 Highlights ᛫ 0 Recommendations
For his “Luminous Bodies” series, Taiwanese-Canadian artist Ed Pien applied ocean water on black paper. The salt crystals that remain after evaporation form an unpredictable pattern that he subsequently perfects with white ink. Pien: "Water wants to escape, it doesn't want to be caught." The effect is open for interpretation: you might see abstract imagery or constellations or even mysterious cave-like spaces. Using his art, Pien tries to express his fascination and awe for nature. He has been working with water for 35 years now. It deeply inspires him, but it also has political implications. Pien tries to reduce the emotional separation between man and nature, during a climate crisis with far-reaching effects that are becoming increasingly clear and, above all, more urgent.
(Gallery: Gallery Maurits van de Laar)
(Gallery: Gallery Maurits van de Laar)
8 Media items ᛫ 10 Available artworks
6 Shows ᛫ 1 Highlights ᛫ 2 Recommendations
The work of the Dutch, New York based artist Rafaël Rozendaal is nearly always related to the internet. Last year, you could literally browse through its abstracted websites in the Stedelijk Museum. He sells these websites with a contractual requirement: the website must always remain accessible to a wider audience. He is perhaps best known to that same audience as the inventor of the Bring Your Own Beamer concept (which even took place at the Venice Biennale), but personally I truly appreciate his physical manifestations of the digital. That includes his tapestry abstractions of well-known websites, such as Google, Dropbox or, as seen here: a Twitter login page. He creates a special code that converts information on the website (from text fields to advertisements) into the geometric elements of the website structure.
(Gallery: Upstream Gallery)
(Gallery: Upstream Gallery)