Alex van Warmerdam opens a new solo exhibition at GRIMM Amsterdam on September 12, 2021. The exhibition consists of paintings depicting full-length figures in landscapes and interior settings.
The figures, personages or 'apparitions' in these works seem foreign to their environment. Some are too large for the space they emerge from, or appear in. Others are awkwardly proportioned, their limbs out of size in relation to the rest of their bodies.
'Landscape 1' and 'Landscape 2' both depict a female figure positioned on a highway making its way thought a mountainous landscape. With her veil and voluminous dress consisting of many layers of fabric, her form takes the shape of the surrounding mountains.
These 'Apparition paintings' are based on a multitude of images, photographs and clippings that Van Warmerdam has collected throughout the years and which he subsequently combines. Personages, or characters are found in books or on the internet. Interiors and landscapes found in old magazines, or in his own photographic archive.
Any image is deemed appropriate and fit to use as long as it provides a painterly motif. It should contain elements that he can use to interpret freely; to underscore, to obscure or both in terms of color, form and composition.