Petrol station and car wash, Escamplaan. Easily disposable architecture.
On top of the car wash (picture below) is a Blackbird (Turdus merula)
[Click on the pictures to enlarge (except for the first one)]
© Villa Next Door 2017
All pictures were taken in March 2016
Bertus Pieters
Political or social engagement may be hot items in present day visual art.
It may give a boost to the image of an individual artist, his/her curator or buyer and to his/her bank account,
but how politically or socially engaged can a work of art really be?
Willem Goedegebuure’s (1953) recent paintings which he presently shows at JCA de Kok, could easily be taken for politically inspired works.
But are they?
Indeed they may deal with pictures taken in Iraq or the Crimea, but at the same time they may also represent seemingly common place scenes, painted with the same eloquence.
Goedegebuure isn’t a man of glamour, neither does he make glamorous paintings.
His representations may evoke different feelings with the viewer, puzzled as you are by what you are actually seeing,
why it is the subject of a painting and why it was painted the way it is.
And don’t be misled!
Goedegebuure’s works seem to have been made with the greatest ease.
However, look again and discover they are quite virtuoso paintings, in their technique and in the way they show you the world.
They don’t tell you how to be right or wrong in this world, they just tell.
[Click on the pictures to enlarge]
© Villa Next Door 2017
Content of all pictures courtesy to Willem Goedegebuure and JCA de Kok, Den Haag
Bertus Pieters
Guido Winkler
The centennial of De Stijl has become a victim of marketing in The Hague,
Guido Winkler
Guido Winkler
Guido Winkler
but happily for A Gallery Named Sue it is a good excuse to show some works by present day artists who make non-figurative or non-objective work,
John Tallman
Jan Maarten Voskuil
each finding freedom in his/her own restrictions.
Justin Andrews
Jan Maarten Voskuil
Some work internationally, to globally keep alive the idea of using basic shapes and simple but purposeful colours,
Jan Maarten Voskuil
Hernán Ardila Delgado
Hernán Ardila Delgado
stressing their spiritual rather than their decorative aspect.
Jan Maarten Voskuil
Billy Gruner
It’s a fine show with very different works by artists from Australia (Justin Andrews and Billy Gruner), Colombia (Hernán Ardila Delgado), the Netherlands (Henriëtte van ‘t Hoog, Jan Maarten Voskuil en Guido Winkler) and from the United States (John Tallman).
Henriëtte van ‘t Hoog
John Tallman
All works, as shown in AGNS, generate a kind of intimacy in spite of their sometimes extremely simple design.
John Tallman
Henriëtte van ‘t Hoog
Guido Winkler
In the ‘little project room’ there is also a work by Sarah Keighery, made with pepper.
Sarah Keighery
[Click on the pictures to enlarge]
© Villa Next Door 2017
Content of all pictures courtesy to the artists and A Gallery Named Sue, Den Haag
Bertus Pieters
Robbie Cornelissen (1954) is probably one of the greatest Dutch draughtsmen.
His work is presently on show at Maurits van de Laar gallery.
You could say his practice is a constant dialogue between drawing and space.
Making big drawings has generally been a sort of artistic hype for quite some time, but Cornelissen’s work is quite a different story.
To the viewer it is also a constant challenge in taking a position in front of his drawings.
There are stop-motion videos on show too, in which you can see how Cornelissen is drawing, abstracting, adjusting, erasing, telling a story of space and non-space.
[Click on the pictures to enlarge]
© Villa Next Door 2017
Content of all pictures courtesy to Robbie Cornelissen and Galerie Maurits van de Laar, Den Haag
Bertus Pieters
House with shop front, Laan van Meerdervoort.
Built in 1913.
Its title only seems to underscore its hopeless loss of charm (supposing it once had it).
[Click on the pictures to enlarge]
© Villa Next Door 2017
All photographs were taken in March 2016
Bertus Pieters
Taisuke Koyama, Takashi Kawashima
The two Japanese artists Taisuke Koyama (1978) and Takashi Kawashima (1985) have made their own exhibition at LhGWR, without any technical and artistic advice or help from the gallery staff.
Taisuke Koyama
Takashi Kawashima
Takashi Kawashima
Taisuke Koyama
It is also their first exhibition together.
Takashi Kawashima
Takashi Kawashima
Takashi Kawashima
Takashi Kawashima
The strange thing is, when entering the gallery, you might as well think all the works are made by one artist, albeit a very versatile one.
Takashi Kawashima
Taisuke Koyama, Takashi Kawashima
Takashi Kawashima
Taisuke Koyama
But soon you see the differences in character, in interest and in ways of seeing and working.
Takashi Kawashima
Taisuke Koyama
Taisuke Koyama
Taisuke Koyama
The unity is based on the presentation, which may look a bit radical for a photo exhibition, but it is also well staged and balanced.
Taisuke Koyama
Taisuke Koyama
Taisuke Koyama
Taisuke Koyama
The duo now make you take your distance, then make you feel part of the ensemble.
Taisuke Koyama
Taisuke Koyama
Taisuke Koyama, Takashi Kawashima
Takashi Kawashima
There are certainly great differences: Koyama’s work deals with the process of photographic reproduction itself while Kawashima might be called a lyrical photographer, constantly in dialogue with great natural forces.
Takashi Kawashima
Takashi Kawashima
Taisuke Koyama, Takashi Kawashima
The key to the success of this presentation is probably the deep respect they seem to have for each other’s works.
Taisuke Koyama, Takashi Kawashima
Taisuke Koyama, Takashi Kawashima
Taisuke Koyama, Takashi Kawashima
Aspects of both artist’s ideas come together in a communally made installation in the gallery’s basement.
Taisuke Koyama, Takashi Kawashima
Taisuke Koyama, Takashi Kawashima
Taisuke Koyama, Takashi Kawashima
Manipulation of algorithms seems to have become part of an artificial work which acts like an unpredictable natural situation.
Taisuke Koyama, Takashi Kawashima
Taisuke Koyama, Takashi Kawashima
Taisuke Koyama, Takashi Kawashima
But apart from these chic words, it is a show to be seen and to be experienced, so go and have a look for yourself somewhere this summer.
Taisuke Koyama, Takashi Kawashima
[Click on the pictures to enlarge]
© Villa Next Door 2017
Content of all pictures courtesy to the artists and LhGWR, The Hague
Bertus Pieters
Galerie Helder has moved to showing solo presentations and the present exhibition of works by Ari Bayuaji (1975) is a very subtle one indeed.
Bayuaji links social criticism to lyricism which makes his works objects of reflection.
Bayuaji, who comes from Bali but now lives in Canada, reflects amongst others on censorship, the position of women, remembrance and the history of places one may call either home or an exotic destiny.
With Bayuaji Helder brings a valuable way of seeing to The Hague and very different from what is regularly on show.
Meanwhile Bayuaji also has a presentation in the Kunsthal in Rotterdam
[Click on the pictures to enlarge]
© Villa Next Door 2017
Content of all pictures courtesy to Aru Bayuaji and Galerie Helder, Den Haag
Bertus Pieters
During his exhibition Guess Things Happen That Way at Galerie Ramakers (click here for some pictures of that show), Michel Hoogervorst (1961) has opened his studio over the weekends. So i visited him last Sunday.
The studio is in one of the many late 19th century apartments in my own neighbourhood, so it was a visit just round the corner.
Apart from seeing his works in a studio setting, you can also admire a big wall painting which he changes almost completely every week.
Almost, as some details are maintained.
It is like the growing process he often shows in his paintings: there is an end to it and also the wall painting’s last version will disappear.
Happily some accurate photographs of the different versions have been made.
Things happen that way too.
[Click on the pictures to enlarge]
© Villa Next Door 2017
Content of all pictures courtesy to Michel Hoogervorst
Bertus Pieters
Villa Next Door 