Bradwolff & Partners is delighted to present new works of Katrin Korfmann, Jaehun Park and Marike Schuurman this year at Unseen. Visit us at booth 37!
Katrin Korfmann shows two new works from the series Homo Ludens. This series focuses on the importance of imagination and play in our culture, exploring the function of play as cultural connection. Korfmann states, “Play, like art, is a connection between people.” The work “Swing” depicts people dancing in Amsterdam’s Oosterpark. A form of entertainment, dance is also packed with cultural and social significance: expressing emotions, celebrating traditions and strengthening communities. The work “Phoenix” is set in Amsterdam’s Bijlmer district and portrays children at play during a party at their sports club. Korfmann’s images are often situated in public spaces. She approaches these locations as biotopes, investigating how humans move within these settings. Seeking to chronicle the memory of a place, she captures a literal portrayal of time. Her images are powerful – in part due to their unusual perspectives – and engage the viewer in the events unfolding there.
Jaehun Park shows new video work “Twig Room”, made using 3D scanning technology that translates physical substances into virtual substances, such as polygon structures and point cloud systems (a series of data points in space). Inside the dark concrete room, a single twig slowly rotates, creating a dynamic waterfall. Concrete is a mixture of cement and water that has been used since ancient Egypt and the Roman era. It is the second most widely used substance in the world after water. Park uses hyper-realistic 3D renderings to stage mass-produced objects as vessels of ideology. His virtual works address current problematic events on Earth by zooming in on cleverly chosen metaphors and objects. In his practice he combines digital ready-made objects with natural phenomena. Through the things people produce, he shows how they live and what they feel, believe or think. Park makes three-dimensional computer animations to visualize our reality, which according to him consists of consumerism, a penchant for spirituality. The result is situations, interiors and landscapes that are as beautiful as they are dark.
Marike Schuurman presents works from the series “Toxic” and “Flashback” which reflect on meta perspectives in photography. “Toxic” merges subject and object in an exploration of the toxic human footprint of brown coal mining, which produces huge craters in the landscape. These craters are often filled with water for the sake of tourism. It takes about 20 years for the water to reach a pH-value suitable for life to thrive in. Until then, the water is simply too acidic. Schuurman took Polaroids of the water’s surface and developed them in this ‘toxic bath’. The varying pH values of the water interacting with the acids of the Polaroids themselves created a wide range of textures and colours.
“Flashback” delves into the aftermath of photography. Magnified images of discharged or faulty flashbulbs allow us to take a closer look at the potentially destructive power of light. The smooth glass surface becomes marred with spherical discolouration, and the wires within entangled. The focus is on the process, highlighting the transformation and destruction lurking behind the photograph.
Schuurman’s artistic work traverses spaces and landscapes as she interweaves them with the fascinating world of photography. It results in a mesmerising dance of concepts and sensory impressions. Her images invite reflection on what we see when we look at a photograph and what was actually there.
artists' resume
Katrin Korfmann [DE,1971] studied at the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, where she specialized in photography and continued her research with residencies at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam, Cittadellarte in Biella and the Chinese European Art Center in Xiamen, China. Since the late 1990s, her work has been exhibited internationally. Her work is represented in numerous private and public collections in the U.S.: C21, Bill and Christy Gautreaux, Fidelity, Twitter; in Germany: Würth Foundation, Alison & Peter W. Klein, European Patent Office, Robert Bosch Foundation; in the Netherlands: Drake Collection, AMC artcollection, AkzoNobel artcollection, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Fotomuseum Den Haag, Carla & Hugo Brown and UMC Utrecht. She won several prizes, including Radostar Prize (CH), Prix de Rome (2nd prize) and the Esther Kroon Award (NL).
Jaehun Park (KR, 1986) studied painting at Seoul National University and completed a Master's degree in Artistic Research at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague. Recent exhibitions he has participated in include CASSTL Antwerp (2023), Beijing Biennial of Art CN (2023), solo Art Rotterdam, Bradwolff Partners (2023), Museum JAN in Amstelveen (2022), Ulsan Art Museum (2022), Alternative space loop Seoul (2021), Photo Basel (2021), and Project Space 1646 in The Hague (2019). His work is included in various collections, including in the Netherlands: Municipal Art Collection Amstelveen, LAM Museum, Normec artcollection and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and abroad: Ulsan Museum of Art, The Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture, Korea Institute for Advanced Study, and Seoul National University Health Service Center.
Marike Schuurman [NL, 1964] studied photography at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and was a resident at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam. She was an artist-in-residence at Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin, Germany (2003), Beijing, China (2008), and São Paulo, Brazil (2009). Her work has been exhibited at institutions such as the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, FOAM Amsterdam, Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin, Helmhaus Zürich Switzerland, and KINDL, Center for Contemporary Art Berlin. Her work is part of collections including Sammlung Hoffmann in Berlin, and in the Netherlands; Achmea artcollection, FOAM Photography Museum Amsterdam, KPN artcollection, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foundation Océ. She works in Berlin.