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Sabrina Kamstra , Curator en hoofd Kunstzaken van Amsterdam UMC
"Art in the times of Corona"
In her capacity of curator and head of Art Affairs at Amsterdam UMC – borne out of the recent merger of the AMC and VUmc - Sabrina Kamstra, who trained as an art historian, is confronted daily with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Sabrina is responsible for both the art collection and the art policy, with the latter focusing on the interplay between art and medicine. For example, under her supervision, programs are developed for the medical faculty based on an active collaboration between (bio) medical scientists, artists and art institutions. Amsterdam UMC is not a museum, but a special and unexpected place where everyone can admire high quality art. In normal times, that is easily amounts to 17,000 visitors per day. The art collection comprises over 6,800 works and can be seen in all of the hospital’s public spaces.
Sabrina was previously a curator at Stichting De Appel in Amsterdam and was director of Cultural Affairs of the Japan-Netherlands Institute in Tokyo for a period of seven years. She regularly gives presentations and has several publications to her name, including The Tokyo Gallery Guide, Bedrijfscollecties Nederland and recently the new collection catalogue A building that breathes art. In addition to her duties as head of Art Affairs at Amsterdam UMC, Sabrina holds a number of administrative and advisory positions within the cultural world and is actively involved in the Association of Dutch Corporate Collections (VBCN), of which she was chairman for several years. She was also a member of the Council for Culture and the Amsterdam Arts Council and advisor to the Mondriaan Fund. Sabrina is currently active as a consultant at the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts.
Sabrina Kamstra about her Collection for GalleryViewer:
Currently, the hospital is in the eye of the storm of the Covid-19 pandemic and it seemed almost inconceivable to me to be occupied with seemingly less important things like art for the hospital. Yet, it was precisely this thought that gave rise to inviting artists and writers to respond to the pandemic, because they can imagine better than anyone what we feel and miss in these difficult times.
The idea resulted in the project "Art in the times of Corona" for which 11 visual artists, ten writers and poets have been invited to reflect on this unprecedented period. "Art in the times of Corona" includes a publication, an exhibition and podcasts with the participating artists. New works have been created for the project by a large number of artists. For my Collection I like to highlight the work of four artists whose work is on GalleryViewer.
Sabrina was previously a curator at Stichting De Appel in Amsterdam and was director of Cultural Affairs of the Japan-Netherlands Institute in Tokyo for a period of seven years. She regularly gives presentations and has several publications to her name, including The Tokyo Gallery Guide, Bedrijfscollecties Nederland and recently the new collection catalogue A building that breathes art. In addition to her duties as head of Art Affairs at Amsterdam UMC, Sabrina holds a number of administrative and advisory positions within the cultural world and is actively involved in the Association of Dutch Corporate Collections (VBCN), of which she was chairman for several years. She was also a member of the Council for Culture and the Amsterdam Arts Council and advisor to the Mondriaan Fund. Sabrina is currently active as a consultant at the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts.
Sabrina Kamstra about her Collection for GalleryViewer:
Currently, the hospital is in the eye of the storm of the Covid-19 pandemic and it seemed almost inconceivable to me to be occupied with seemingly less important things like art for the hospital. Yet, it was precisely this thought that gave rise to inviting artists and writers to respond to the pandemic, because they can imagine better than anyone what we feel and miss in these difficult times.
The idea resulted in the project "Art in the times of Corona" for which 11 visual artists, ten writers and poets have been invited to reflect on this unprecedented period. "Art in the times of Corona" includes a publication, an exhibition and podcasts with the participating artists. New works have been created for the project by a large number of artists. For my Collection I like to highlight the work of four artists whose work is on GalleryViewer.
2 Media items ᛫ 16 Available artworks
2 Shows ᛫ 1 Highlights ᛫ 2 Recommendations
Sarah Mei Herman took this photo in Xiamen and illustrates her main theme, namely the intimacy and relationships between people. We really need that interaction and we miss it during the lockdown. Sarah Mei Herman usually photographs adolescents, the group that seems to miss the mutual contact the most. By following her models for a longer period of time, Mei Herman establishes a relationship of trust with them. This way she can penetrate into their feelings, which are almost tangible in her photos. Through this glimpse into another person’s feelings, the artist subtly activates the viewer's perspective.
(Galerie Caroline O'Breen)
(Galerie Caroline O'Breen)
2 Media items ᛫ 37 Available artworks
9 Shows ᛫ 0 Highlights ᛫ 2 Recommendations
Recurring themes in Jennifer Tee's work are geometric and crystal shapes which suggest inner spaces. Tee works in various media, materials and techniques such as performances, installations, ceramics, paper and fabric, photography and collages.
For her monumental work Tulip Palepai in the metro station under Amsterdam’s Central Station, she spent two years researching the size, colour and shape of 30 tulip varieties in the "Hortus Bulborum" (historic flower bulb garden in Limmen). After flowering she collected hundreds of tulip petals there, which she carefully dried. Then they were placed one by one in the artwork, just like in Tampan tree of life. Because dried tulip petals can tolerate little light, the collages are scanned.
In Sumatra, it was customary for centuries to hang the hand-woven Palepai or ship's cloth in the central room of a house. Such cloths served as a ceremonial backdrop for weddings, funerals and other rites of passage. The dominant motif is that of a ship full of human and animal figures and a mast that ends in a tree of life. The whole depicts a journey of souls on their way to new lives or to the hereafter. Both tulips and ship cloths have a lot of personal significance for Jennifer Tee. In 1950, for example, a ship brought her father and his family from Indonesia to the Netherlands while her maternal grandfather crossed the Atlantic once a year to trade tulip bulbs in the US.
(Galerie Fons Welters)
For her monumental work Tulip Palepai in the metro station under Amsterdam’s Central Station, she spent two years researching the size, colour and shape of 30 tulip varieties in the "Hortus Bulborum" (historic flower bulb garden in Limmen). After flowering she collected hundreds of tulip petals there, which she carefully dried. Then they were placed one by one in the artwork, just like in Tampan tree of life. Because dried tulip petals can tolerate little light, the collages are scanned.
In Sumatra, it was customary for centuries to hang the hand-woven Palepai or ship's cloth in the central room of a house. Such cloths served as a ceremonial backdrop for weddings, funerals and other rites of passage. The dominant motif is that of a ship full of human and animal figures and a mast that ends in a tree of life. The whole depicts a journey of souls on their way to new lives or to the hereafter. Both tulips and ship cloths have a lot of personal significance for Jennifer Tee. In 1950, for example, a ship brought her father and his family from Indonesia to the Netherlands while her maternal grandfather crossed the Atlantic once a year to trade tulip bulbs in the US.
(Galerie Fons Welters)
4 Media items ᛫ 37 Available artworks
3 Shows ᛫ 6 Highlights ᛫ 2 Recommendations
Salim Bayri's work invites you to zoom in on matters that interest him. Bayri’s working method is hybrid and can take on many forms. The Smart Shop is one of them, a kind of digital "Wunderkammer" in which he regularly posts new images of objects and subjects. These can be everyday things, but also references to themes such as nature, inclusion, alienation and loneliness. This work is a print of the status of the Smart Shop at a particular point in time. Things come and go in the Smart Shop. Sometimes he puts something in and sometimes he takes some out, effectively turning it into an evolving work that changes shape over time. At first glance, everything seems the same, but the objects keep changing places or disappear without us being aware of it. Bayri thus offers us a blueprint of our environment in which everything is subject to change without us seeming to notice it. In doing so, he also makes a link to the Anthropocene: the so-called 'era of man', which on the one hand is a recognition of the exceptional strength of man, while on the other hand it is testament of the ecological damage we cause and the devastating traces we leave behind, our collective incapacity.
(Galerie van Gelder)
(Galerie van Gelder)