31 august 2020, Flor Linckens
Exciting photography exhibitions
The Opening of the Gallery Season will take place on September 3rd. Several new shows will open during that (long) weekend, and over the next few weeks we'll give you a sneak peek at what will be happening that weekend. In this article we will take a closer look at the photography that will be shown from that weekend onwards.
The Ravestijn Gallery exhibits work by British photographer and artist Patrick Waterhouse. He made his "Restricted Images" series in collaboration with the Warlpiri people in Central Australia. Waterhouse is intrigued by the way our understanding of the past is constantly changing, because in the end, history is always a construct. The Aboriginals, the original inhabitants of Australia, have always had a fraught relationship with photography. They believed that the photography process would take their souls and that depicting the dead and sacred places was a disrespect towards their ancestors in the afterlife. Patrick Waterhouse safeguards these cultural sensitivities by working wíth them to arrive at an agreed result. He spent five years taking photographs in the Warlpiri communities of Yuendumu and Nyirripi. After that, he printed the photos in England and returned to Australia to "restrict" the images with the help of local artists. This way, he re-empowers the groups that had no influence on how they were represented in the past.
Patrick Waterhouse, What Is The Which Way? / Restricted with Jessica N, 2018, The Ravestijn Gallery.
Galerie Bart offers eleven photographers a stage in ‘The Great Photography Special’ What connects all of them them is that these photographers all play with the limits of the medium. Think of spatial installations, performances and special recording techniques. The finishing of these works is often interesting as well, for instance in the use of special paper or epoxy resin. Marleen Sleewits took her photos when she voluntarily had herself locked up in the Haarlem dome prison for 24 hours. Each photographer will exhibit four works, two of which (in a higher edition) will be priced attractively: ranging between 125-250 euros. The exhibition will show new work, but also work that has not been exhibited before. The participating photographers are Alexandra Hunts, Choki Lindberg, Femke Dekkers, Henk Wildschut, Isabelle Wenzel, Jannemarein Renout, Katarina Juričić, Kuno Grommers, Lola Keyezua, Marleen Sleeuwits and Tibor Dieters.
Marleen Sleeuwits, CELL 2, 2020, Galerie Bart.
In Galerie Caroline O’Breen you will be able to explore the work by French photographer Elsa Leydier, who won both the Maison Ruinart Paris Photo Prize and the Dior Prize for Photography for Young Talents in 2019. She has been living in Rio de Janeiro for five years now and the South American continent is central to her photography. The most notable element in her work is the striking (manipulated) use of colour, that she borrowed from the aesthetics that are used in advertisements — in a nice contrast with the documentary photography that she often depicts. For example, she recorded the Amazon region, which is often glamourised in the Western media. She is always concerned with representation, stereotypes and exoticism - to what extent do these correspond with reality? The exhibition shows her last three projects. Please note: this exhibition can only be seen from 5 September onwards due to the gallery’s move to a new building (in the same street) at 54 Hazenstraat.
Elsa Leydier, Untitled #3, 2016, Galerie Caroline O'Breen.
galerie dudokdegroot programmed a solo exhibition for the gallery weekend with work by the Dutch artist Paul Bogaers. “My habit of collecting and preserving everything has its limits and downsides. For a long time, I had a tendency to hold on to everything, to not to part with anything. Now I am forced to let go." His ‘extended photography’ can be seen in the exhibition in gallery dudokdegroot. Bogaers uses this name to explain his work, for which photography is often primarily the starting point. His objects often consist of interesting combinations of materials, in particular photography combined with found objects.
Paul Bogaers, 'wandconstellatie', 2020, galerie dudokdegroot.
During the opening of the gallery season, Galerie Fontanaoffers a duo exhibition with new work by Max Kraanen and Simone Hoang. What connects their work in this exhibition is the almost abstract representation of nature with attention for space, light and time. Kraanen traveled to the New Zealand coastline and tried to capture it using his large format film camera, with as little manipulation as possible. Hoang's work, as always, relies heavily on her impressive technical and artistic research. For the series “Night Sensitivity”, she captured the night sky in Vietnam - which holds a symbolic place in her childhood memories - and the Sahara in Morocco, where you will find the darkest nights on earth. She regards the night as her dark room.
Simone Hoang, Renumeration, 2020, Galerie Fontana.
Galerie Wouter van Leeuwen will soon be showing work by American photographer Raymond Meeks. Some photographers show that you don't need long journeys or major social themes to tell a universal story. Raymond Meeks often finds inspiration in his backyard: literally and figuratively. The resulting photos are neither provincial nor metropolitan, allowing for something intimate and distant at the same time. The themes are almost always recognisable. For instance, he made a special series about moving, inspired by his own relocation experiences (with images that match his fascination for neglect and decay, such as demolished and dismantled kitchens).
Raymond Meeks, CHC 8, 2020, Galerie Wouter van Leeuwen.
Lumen Travo Galerie presents the work of Milena Naef, who comes from a Swiss family of stonemasons, dating back four generations. Her work shows her fascination with the ways our bodies relate to our constantly changing environment. “Due to the inevitable presence of our bodies, I believe that we define ourselves through the constant interaction we are forced to have with our surroundings.” For her performance installations, which she captures in photographs, she uses her own body as a material in relation to marble slabs. She saws out some of her body contours, creating an interesting contrast between her partly visible, soft body and the rigid, cold marble. For some of her works she uses Le Corbusier's measurement system based on human proportions.
Milena Naef, Fleeting Part (edition 5), 2017, Lumen Travo Galerie.
