Gallery Ramakers celebrates 30th anniversary two- and three-dimensional at 2 locations
How do you celebrate your gallery's 30th anniversary? “With all your artists of course!” gestures Catalijn Ramakers with a wide arm wave, “from all of them I will show something new. It should be a big party!”
A small problem - but by no means all of them fit in the nevertheless spacious gallery on Toussaintkade - is cleverly solved. In the gallery, the two-dimensional work is shown and the equally large space of Quartair (almost the neighbor) is furnished with three-dimensional work. So two exhibitions that complement and contradict each other. A goat trail is nearly ready - through the backyard - so that visitors can walk inside, as it were.
Thirty years is a small eternity in the gallery world. Only a handful of names remain from the inspired period when contemporary art really gained a foothold.
When Catalijn Ramakers started her gallery under her own name in 1994, she had just turned 22. Super young but remarkably confident. After a marketing study and a “crash course” at Kunst en Bedrijf, she charted a course that still works just fine.
She is a classic mediator who knows the client as well as the artist. She links: “Often when I select work at the studio, I already have lovers in mind.”
In the “tableau de la troupe” - over 38 artists - she distinguishes three blood groups.
Minimalists like Bob Bonies and Willy de Sauter, naturalists like Sjoerd Buisman and Hieke Luik and post-surrealists like Pat Andrea and Ossip. She follows developments for a long time and regularly brings this to the fore, both in the gallery and at fairs at home and abroad. Mediating commissions and museum contacts are also of not inconsiderable importance.
Has the profession changed? “Yes, people are giving themselves less time. Even fair-goers go around more and more fleetingly. It has become more difficult to bring someone to a standstill for a while.” Art now requires slowing down and deepening. Then a cheerful disposition and a tendency to view things with some humor helps. To stimulate interest in a different way, she posts daily items on social media. That has an effect.
About the location - typically The Hague, opposite the Royal Stables - she is still very satisfied. There is an atmosphere of light and space. The sea lingers in the air. The court city is often underestimated, but there are remarkably many good artists' initiatives and some great, dynamic museums. “There's nothing wrong with The Hague,” she says with a broad smile. “I plan to keep going for quite a while!”
The 30th anniversary will also be celebrated at PAN Amsterdam ( 23-11 to 01-12- 2024 )
Hendrik van Leeuwen
September 1 through October 6 30 years of Galerie Ramakers, 2 locations.
23 November to 1 December PAN Amsterdam, 30 years Galerie Ramakers
Galerie Ramakers, Toussaintkade 51 and Quartair, Toussaintkade 55.
Open: Thursday to Saturday 12 - 5 pm and every Sunday 1 - 5 pm.