Painter Simon Schrikker (1973) shows new works in his present exhibition at Livingstone Gallery.
His dogs, once a bit scary and unpredictable, have been tamed by now and have become painterly constructions.
Octopi and sharks still haunt his paintings but he has also been concentrating on the world where these creatures come from: the sea.
Seascapes and mountains have become Schrikker’s play field to find a balance between the subject and paint itself.
You may find parts of the ocean in or around the corner,
while the idea of wild surf and rocks has even made sculpture out of paint.
Quite recent are his water colours with mountains, in which Schrikker mixes the awesome sublimity of the subject with the abstract calligraphy of his material.
In fact Schrikker is constantly trying to bend the sublime of his subjects towards the abstraction of painting.
He also does so by combining his subjects in collages and in video.
In that way Schrikker is challenging the idea of the sublime and the expression of it.
[Click on the pictures to enlarge]
© Villa Next Door 2017
Content of all photograph courtesy to Simon Schrikker and Livingstone Gallery, Den Haag.
Bertus Pierters
Villa Next Door 