For Art Rotterdam, KERSGALLERY presents a dialogue between Marc Mulders and Anna Aagaard Jensen, two artists who each explore the possibilities of painting, sculpture, and materiality from their own distinct perspectives.
In the work of Marc Mulders, the observation of light, nature, and transience has been central for decades. His paintings and watercolors move between abstraction and recognition: flowers, landscapes, and passages of light dissolve into layered fields of color and transparent paint structures. For Art Rotterdam, Mulders presents not only new paintings but also a recent expansion of his practice: ceramics, developed in collaboration with Cor Unum. These sculptural works carry the same sensitivity to color, rhythm, and organic form as his paintings. In clay, however, his motifs gain a new physical presence, where glaze and form continue the play of light and color in three dimensions.
Anna Aagaard Jensen (Esbjerg, 1990) is a Danish artist who lives and works in Rotterdam. In her sculptures and paintings she investigates the representation of women and the female body. Her work approaches the body as a site where identity, strength, and vulnerability intersect. The forms are strongly corporeal and direct, with color and material creating a vivid sense of energy and presence.
At the same time, Jensen operates within a broader critical context. Her practice creates and archives critical discourse around art and artistic practice. Through essays, conversations, and community-oriented initiatives she encourages public debate about the role of art in society. For Jensen, art does not exist without reflection and discussion: art must be questioned, tested, and understood in order to acquire public meaning.
Within the KERSGALLERY booth, a meeting emerges between two different generations and artistic approaches. While Mulders works from contemplation, nature, and light, Jensen departs from the body and the critical conversation surrounding art and representation. What connects their work is an intense attention to color, material, and the physical experience of art.
Together, their works create a space in which painting, sculpture, and ceramics enter into dialogue — a place where contemplation and critical reflection coexist.
SCULPTURE PARK
Marieke Bolhuis, Strawberry Girl, 172x120x60cm, cork fiber resin EPS, 2025, Kersgallery Strawberry Girl is the latest and more precisely, the seventh sculpture in the series Stages of Life. The series begins with My Birth, followed by Girls Don’t Cry, Dance, Love, Days That Count, and ends with You Are My Fungus. Along the way, life unfolds.
The works are created from Bolhuis’s female perspective; both vulnerable and strong, referencing and connecting to nature. The cork hands of Strawberry Girl seem to grow out of the earth, while at the same time being richly veined and connective. She blushes, blooms, and glows full of discovery. A teenager? Doubt, inner beauty.
Bolhuis’s work speaks to people without condescension. It’s strange, but not alienating. Emotional, but never preachy. Most importantly, it feels alive. Bolhuis reminds us that mess has meaning. That weirdness holds wisdom. That vulnerability can be a kind of armor.