Christie van der Haak: Fairy Tales; Gemeentemuseum, The Hague

On Boxing Day i visited the Gemeentemuseum to see Christie van der Haak’s exhibition Fairy Tales.

Van der Haak has been awarded the municipal Ouborg Prize and the show is organized on that occasion.

She once started out as a painter, but later on she also started making designs, amongst others for textiles.

The present exhibition shows her work in an installation highlighting both her painting and her designs, where the visitor is almost literally enclosed in a wonderful world of colour and patterns.

The show is accompanied by a just as wonderful book.

If you can read Dutch i suggest you click here and read Michiel Morel’s excellent article about Van der Haak on his blog.

But the best thing to do is, of course, to visit the show.

Be prepared to take your time though, as there is a lot to be seen and many visitors linger (as i did) because they can’t get enough of the atmosphere.

[Click on the pictures to enlarge]

Bertus Pieters

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Now or never #3 (supplement), GEM, The Hague

When i visited Now or never #3 at GEM for the first time i reported here that Martin Gabriel’s video game Realm wasn’t working. On Boxing Day I popped in again and now the game was working. So here are some screen shots from Realm by Martin Gabriel with me pushing the buttons. Go and play!

[Click on the pictures to enlarge]

Bertus Pieters

I am closer to you than your very self; Nest, The Hague

Chaim van Luit

 

Gijs Frieling

Some time ago i visited I am closer to you than your very self at Nest to write a review for Villa La Repubblica (click here to read the review and see some more pictures; in Dutch) .

Chaim van Luit (back), Gijs Frieling (front)

For someone, like me, who believes life is only there for its own sake and that its only meaning is to continue, it could be a hard nut to crack to appreciate art that has to do with other convictions.

Gijs Frieling

On the other hand, other convictions may cause the same problems to their confessors and in the end it is all about what makes the art work.

Gijs Frieling

Nest has invited Gijs Frieling who is a Christian, Chaim van Luit, who is not a believer but who has a Jewish background, and Hamid El Kanbouhi, who is a Muslim, to make an exhibition which expresses something about these different religious backgrounds and how these make their work tick.

Gijs Frieling

Frieling shows a painted version of a mosaic he is making for Haarlem Cathedral.

Chaim van Luit

 

Chaim van Luit

 

Chaim van Luit

 

Chaim van Luit

 

Chaim van Luit

Van Luit shows his more conceptualist works that not just deal with religion but also with World War II and the Third Reich.

Anne Rodermond (front), Hamid El Kanbouhi (back)

 

Hamid El Kanbouhi

 

Hamid El Kanbouhi

El Kanbouhi, in Who has peed in my mind, in which he was assisted by René Baptist Huysmans (soundscapes) and Anne Rodermond (sculpture),

Hamid El Kanbouhi

 

Hamid El Kanbouhi

shows the state of mind that present developments in and around Islam cause.

Hamid El Kanbouhi

It all results in an impressive exhibition.

Chaim van Luit

[Click on the pictures to enlarge]

Bertus Pieters

Back to the Future and Roald de Boer at Billytown, The Hague

The present show at Billytown is called Back to the Future, but it might as well be called Back to Basics. (Make sure to see it soon, the show is in its last week!)

Navid Nuur

 

Navid Nuur

Probably the first work you’ll see when entering the gallery is Navid Nuur’s The Explicator. It’ll make you doubt if any explication would do, what any explication would hide or what it would generate.

Rumiko Hagiwara

Right round the corner you’ll see Rumiko Hagiwara’s video of an A4 paper, as a confirmation of Nuur’s suggestion.

Navid Nuur

 

Navid Nuur

 

Rumiko Hagiwara

 

Rumiko Hagiwara

 

Navid Nuur

 

Navid Nuur

 

Rumiko Hagiwara

In this way the whole exhibition is well orchestrated.

Marijn van Kreij

 

Maarten Sleeuwits

The other two artists taking part in the show are Marijn van Kreij and Maarten Sleeuwits.

Maarten Sleeuwits

 

Maarten Sleeuwits

 

Maarten Sleeuwits

Sleeuwits shows his recast pewter spoons on a table by Nicholas Riis, specially made for them, as well as

Maarten Sleeuwits

 

Maarten Sleeuwits

mirrors printed with the places where they were presented.

Marijn van Kreij

 

Marijn van Kreij

One of Van Kreij’s latest victims for re-representation seems to be Bauhaus designer Gunta Stölzl.

Rumiko Hagiwara

Hagiwara has a special corner for her video Space between Yellow and Blue, starting with the yellow heart of a dandelion and ending in the blue sky, another work that avoids representation or – staying with Nuur – explication.

Roald de Boer

 

Roald de Boer

As a small counter-exhibition Billytown’s kitchen offers works by Roald de Boer.

Roald de Boer

 

Roald de Boer

He shows a combination of sex, death and personal history in pictures and examples of his Magazine ZINE.

Roald de Boer

 

Roald de Boer

It feels like meeting an old friend after many years.

Roald de Boer

[Click on the pictures to enlarge]

Bertus Pieters

Sybren Renema: The Milk of Paradise, Dürst Britt & Mayhew, The Hague

I went to Dürst Britt & Mayhew gallery to write a review for Villa La Repubblica about Sybren Renema’s exhibition The Milk of Paradise. For the complete review (in Dutch) and some more pictures click here. It is quite a deromanticised romantic affair. Above you see Thomas de Quincey’s grave with a mirrored quotation from a letter by Coleridge, almost as an alternative epitaph.

Renema’s neon lights remind you of the 19th century romantic facts, whether it is Death and the Maiden,

the Wanderer-Fantasy,

sublime mountain landscapes or

opium addiction.

There is also the sometimes life threatening hardship of being a brilliant scientist in the Romantic era and

there is a death mask constructed by Renema from the average of more than 30 death masks of great Romantics.

It is as cool and clean as it can be and still it looks devotional.

It a very good and likeable exhibition. In spite of, or rather because of the subdued presentation, Renema’s enthusiasm in his works is quite clear and will make you want to see more, either here or in Xanadu.

[Click on the pictures to enlarge]

Bertus Pieters

All Art Is Political. Exit Gemak, The Hague

René Vullings

 

POTL, Hans Demoed & Geert de Rooij

 

POTL, Hans Demoed & Geert de Rooij

 

Dana LaMonda

 

Jean van Wijk

On Friday December 4th Gemak/Vrije Academie closed its doors as a result of rigorous cuts by the municipality of The Hague in financing the institution. Herewith a good and spacious platform to show present day art in dialogue with the neighbourhood, the city town and indeed the rest of the world, is closed down. On the last day of its existence Gemak organized amongst others a one day exhibition in which more than forty artists took part. It was a great and heart warming show for the closing institution and for the many people who attended. The next day I visited Gemak to make some pictures of the day after for this posting. For a full article in Dutch about the closure of Gemak i refer you to Villa La Repubblica (click here). In the mean time, enjoy the pictures.

Yvo van der Vat

 

Ehsan Behmanesh & Arefeh Riahi

 

Petra van der Schoot

 

Claudie de Cleen

 

Willem Speekenbrink

 

Zeger Reyers

Joncquil

 

Pim Voorneman

 

André Kruysen

Wouter Willebrands

 

Pendar Nabipour

 

Sylvain Mazas

Laura van Eeden

 

Marjolijn van der Meij

 

Marjolijn van der Meij

 

Zeger Reyers

Paul Bruininckx

 

Nicole Donkers

 

Nicole Donkers

 

Philip Schuette

Harold de Bree

 

Ingrid Mol

Mark de Weijer

[Click on the pictures to enlarge]

Bertus Pieters