Optical movement

Imagine standing in front of a geometric black and white painting with a repeating pattern, a zigzag for example, and wondering why it attracted your attention. At first you do not understand, but as your eyes examine the paintings surface you will start to see movement in there. You do not believe your eyes since it is only paint on a canvas, or is it a trick? No, this is what meeting an early Bridget Riley painting is like. The Gemeentemuseum in The Hague currently houses an exhibition where you can experience this for yourself.

Alice Wonders

Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) never ceases to spark the imagination. From the many book versions to a multiplicity of plays, dances etc., the story remains popular. Even visual artists find inspiration in Carroll’s famous narrative, as the recent exhibition No Cover Image at Arti et Amicitiae proved. Artists Stephan Jäschke, Laurent Proux, Tillmann Terbuyken, Marjolijn de Wit, Thijs Rhijnsburger, Arthur Stokvis and Bonno van Doorn created a space where one art piece flows over into the next and engaged the audience.

In search for my religion

In the history of art religion has played a major role. In Western Europe for example, artists mostly received commissions from the Church and their subjects were often biblical. Today religion seems to have vanished in art, or at least it is being criticized. The current exhibition ‘I am closer to you than your very self’ at Nest shows otherwise, it presents artworks by three artists with a religious background. Nest invited the artists to examine the significance of their religion in their art and life.

Step into a new world

The work of Kees de Goede (1954) never held a particular interest for me until I came across his exhibition in De Pont Museum. Kees de Goede is a Dutch artist who transforms his encounters with and his astonishment of the world around him into abstract paintings. Nature is an important source of inspiration for De Goede, so much so that he even integrates parts of it in his work. Examples of this are his canvasses stretched over a support of branches, which at several places almost appear to pierce through the linen. This method adds an illusory kind of movement to the artwork, as if a being tries to come out from the other side of the painting. Some of these works actually have a hole in the center, which contradicts the impression by reveiling there is nothing behind the linen.

Rose Goehring at AT388

Sunday September 9 – AT388 in Rotterdam was the space for a small gathering on account of the opening of the new exhibition of works by Rose Goehring. Her work is shown in combination with works by Fernando Rosas and Santiago Garcia Pilotto. AT388 is owned by Jules Woei-a-Tsoi and Dick Reinders, who wanted to create a space for the art they love. On their website it reads that they want to show mostly Argentinian artists, but also like to confront these works with temporary exhibitions by Dutch artists. Rose Goehring is one of these Dutch artists.