Krijn de Koning, Verticals and Horizontals: 27 November – 19 December 2015
Slewe Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of the exhibition Verticals and Horizontals by Dutch artist Krijn de Koning (*1963). It will open during the Amsterdam Art Weekend (26-29 November) on Friday November 27 and it will run until December 19. A series of 4 unique, specially made sculptures will be on view along with some newly made drawings.
Krijn de Koning deals with the question how we experience architectural space. Most of the time Krijn de Koning creates site-specific work that questions the specific characteristics of a given location. More than spatial interventions these works are homogenous structures that can best be defined as sculpture, but also incorporate the qualities of painting and architecture.
De Koning studied at the Ateliers 63 in Haarlem (NL) and institut des Hautes Etudes en Art Plastiques in Paris. He participated in many international exhibitions, such as in the Folkstone Triennial in 2014 and the Art Triennial of Beaufort in Oostende (BE) in 2009. His work has been collected by several important private collections, such as the collection of Jean-Philippe & Françoise Billarant and public collections, such as the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen and Centraal Museum in the Netherlands and the FNAC and FRACs in France. In December 2007 he received the prestigious Dutch Sikkens Prize in Rotterdam, also received by Donald Judd and Jan Dibbets. On this occasion a catalog had been published, giving an overview of more than 10 years of work. In 2010 he made a huge installation at the Nieuwe kerk in Amsterdam and in 2011 at Musée des Beaux–Arts de Nantes, including a new catalog entitled Vides pour un patio. Since 1996 his work has been represented by Slewe Gallery.
Martina Klein, Volume: 17 October – 21 November 2015
Slewe Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of the exhibition, entitled Volume, by German artist Martina Klein (*1962). The exhibition opens Saturday October 17 and will run until November 21.
Klein makes large monochrome canvases, which are most of the time not hanging on the wall in an usual way, but stand against the wall or stand free in space, like an object. According to Klein the composition is not made in the painting it self but occurs in the space, within the relation of other paintings. The various monochromes make a choreography of color planes that defines the space and gives it character.
Klein builds up her painting with several layers of self made recipes of paint. Adding more pigments to the oil, gives the painting a radiant effect. Her specific use of colors and the way of painting gives her work an extra quality. Recently she cuts the canvases loose of the stretchers, so that they hang partly free form their support. This exhibition will show some examples of these free hanging canvases again but now partly covered in a wooden construction, which is part of the work.
Klein lives and works in Düsseldorf, where she had her first solo exhibition at Konrad Fischer Galerie. Nowadays she regularly exhibits at Galerie Tschudi in Zuoz (CH) and at Slewe Gallery. In 2004 she had an exhibition at the Rijks-museum Twenthe, Enschede. In 2009 she showed at Kunstraum Alexander Buerkle in Freiburg and in 2012 she made an installation with her works at the LehmbruckMuseum in Duisburg, on which occasion a catalog had been produced. Her works are collected internationally by both private and public institutions.
Kees Smits: 12 September – 10 October 2015
Slewe Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of the exhibition with new works by Dutch artist Kees Smits (*1945). The exhibition opens Saturday September 12 and will last until October 10.
Smits’s abstract geometric paintings deal with how one experience different perspective in the flat Dutch landscape. He tries to catch the panoramic view of the Dutch landscape in different perspectives. Both in his long horizontal works, which can consist of different sizes of canvases, and in his narrow vertical works he focuses on a literal perspective experience in viewing the space. Smits’ preoccupation with perspective on a flat plane goes back to the experiments of Russian constructivists such as El Lissitsky. His love for Malevich the way his paintings have been organized. Also in the use of bright and contrastful colours there is a connection with the pioneer of abstract art.
Kees Smits lives and works in Amsterdam. He became known as an artist at the time he participated at the Fundamental Painting show in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in 1979. Since then his paintings have been shown regularly. In 1994 he had an overview of his works in the Centraalmuseum Utrecht, on which occasion also a catalogue had been published. Smits has been showing at Slewe Gallery on a regular base since 1995.
Alan Charlton: 16 May – 20 June 2015
Slewe Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of the exhibition with new works by the British artist Alan Charlton (*1948, Sheffield). The exhibition will show his new Triangle paintings, specially made for this occasion. It will open Saturday May 16 and will last until June 20, 2015. It is his second show at Slewe Gallery.
Alan Charlton is one of the most famous representatives of the minimal and conceptual art in England. For more than 40 years his work consists of pure monochrome grey paintings, made with acrylic paint on canvas. When he was twenty-one years old, while still studying at the Camberwell School of Art, he took the decision to make only grey paintings. For Charlton the colour grey is the most emotional and diverse colour. All his works are based on the module of 4,5 cm. Their balanced compostions of mostly several grey panels give the paintings a monumental and specific expression.
Since the seventies Charlton had numerous important museum and gallery shows internationally. In the Netherlands he had solo shows at Art & Project and at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and Van Abbemuseum, in Germany at Konrad Fischer Galerie and at Musuem Kurhaus Kleve a.o., in Italy at Castello di Rivoli, Torino, in Switserland at galerie Tschudi and in London at Annely Juda Gallery and at the Tate Gallery. His work has been collected worldwide by prestigious public and private collections.
Jerry Zeniuk, Listen to me Look at me: 28 March – 2 May 2015
JERRY ZENIUK Listen to me, Look at me
New Works and a Sound Art Work in collaboration with Ernst Reijseger
Opening Saturday 28 March 5-7 pm with a performance by Ernst Reijseger at ca. 5.30 pm
Slewe Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of the exhibition with new works by American painter Jerry Zeniuk, among which a large painting of 280 x 400 cm. It was one of the five large-scale paintings at his show Not for your Living Room at the Museum Wiesbaden last year. In addition to this there will be a sound artwork on show and on hear in collaboration with the Dutch cellist and composer Ernst Reijseger. It contains a series of seven small paintings made by Zeniuk. Each of them is connected with a four-movement composition by Reijseger, which was recorded during Zeniuk's exhibition at Museum Wiesbaden (see for that https://vimeo.com/110794845), materialized in seven different Unikat LPs, each of them exists only one time. During the opening on Saturday March 28 Reijseger will present a solo-performance.
Colour is essential in the painting of Zeniuk. According to Zeniuk colours are not only carriers of emotion, but their interaction reflects social and human relationships in general as well. His recent canvases use different coloured circles or dots or forms to create colour interactions that create a specific pictorial space. They float on a whitish coloured or raw canvas, but suggest space that is occupied with a retain light. The edges of these dots are in some cases sharp, in other vague and atmospheric. They are brought into a harmonious equilibrium and have a strong spatial effect. 'Beauty', philosophically and visually, is the ultimate goal in the paintings. Zeniuk became known in the seventies, when he participated at the Fundamental Painting show in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam in 1975. Since then his paintings developed from a monochrome plane, in which several coloured layers have been put on top of each other, towards compositions of contrasting color planes next to each other.
Born in 1945 in Bardowick (DE), as a son of Ukrain refugees, he emigrated with his parents to the United States in 1950, where he grew up in Colorado. After his study he moved to New York, where he had his first exhibition. Since the seventies he stayed regularly in Germany, participating in several exhibitions. Now he is living in Munich and he is regularly showing at Konrad Fischer Galerie in Düsseldorf and Berlin, and at Annemarie Verna in Zürich. From 1992 to 2010 he had been teaching at the Akademie der Bildende Künste in Munich. In 1999 he had an overview of his work at the Museum Lenbachhaus in Munich, Kunstmuseum Winterthur (CH) and Kunstmuseum Kassel, on which occasion a comprehensive catalogue had been published. In 2004 he had an overview of his watercolours at the Kunsthalle Karlsruhe. In 2012/2013 he had an overview of his works at Museum Glaspalast Augsburg (dependance of the Pinakothek der Modene, München), entitled Jerry Zeniuk: Elementary Painting. Last year there was an exhibition focusing on his large monumental works at Museum Wiesbaden Not for your Living Room.
The violoncellist Reijseger (*1954, Naarden), known for his improvised music, earned international recognition through his collaboration with the film maker Werner Herzog. Especially his scores for the film Cave of forgotten Dreams (2010), about the famous prehistoric cave murals in the south of France. Also he has written scores for Herzogs film about the landscapes by Hercules Segers Hearsay of the Soul, which was the hit at the Whitney Biennial in New York in 2012. This movie will be on show at the Museum Wallraf Richartz Museum in Cologne, opening April 13, 2015. In addition to collaborations with artists like Herzog and Zeniuk, Reijseger also collaborated with famous musicians like Han Bennink and Michael Moore. For the sound art Listen to me Look at me Reijseger (violoncello) and Stefan Winter (sound director) of the label Winter&Winter are collaborating.
Special thanks for providing the seound equipment at Slewe Gallery to Mark Huinder: www.solostatic.com
Oeuvres: 21 February – 21 March 2015
Oeuvres. On precision, repetition and obsession
Curator: John Snijders
Participating artists: Jill Baroff, Tom Benson, Susan Collis, David Connearn, Károly Keserü, Katie Paterson, Ignacio Uriarte
Finissage Saturday 21 March with concert by John Snijders at 5 pm
Slewe Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Oeuvres, a special curated show by John Snijders. As musician (piano) and artistic director of the Ives Ensemble, Snijders (*1963, NL) is known for his thoughtful and sensitive performances of contemporary music. He is also an art collector and interested in the visual arts of today. The exhibition opens Saturday February 21 and runs until March 21, 2015.
According to Snijders the show will bring together seven artists whose practice is permeated with the idea of obsessiveness and attention to detail through repetition. From meticulously drawing lines to registering tidal variations in drawing, from mapping dead stars and blackness in the universe to making art out of repetitive office work, there is a deep involvement with the process of making marks and surfaces with endless patience and perseverance. The title is taken from the 2002 book by the French author and visual artist Edouard Levé (1965-2007), in which he describes 533 artistic projects conceived of but not realised by its author. In the show, Snijders’ music choice can be heard through headphones, acting as a non-verbal explanation of the exhibition. On the show’s closing day, March 21, Snijders will give a concert at 5 pm.
The exhibition features works by Jill Baroff, Tom Benson, Susan Collis, David Connearn, Károly Keserü, Katie Paterson and Ignacio Uriarte and includes drawing, painting, sound installation, photography and a whole lot of counting. The precise ink drawings by American artist Jill Baroff (*1956) are based on the tidal movements of various bodies of water. Of British artist Tom Benson (*1962), who is focusing on tone and colour in his work, some monochrome paintings looking like industrial colour panels will be on show. Apart from very realistic objects, Scottish sculptor Susan Collis (*1956) makes exquisitely intricate pencil drawings in which figurative images of shadow or paint splatters are almost indistinguishable from the real thing. Repetitive hand drawn lines form in a continuing work process in David Connearn’s (*1952, UK) body of work. Scribbles, made by the Hungarian Károly Keserü (*1962) and the Berlin based Spanish artist Ignacio Uriarte (*1972) are locked in a grid. Also Uriarte’s sound works, like 8 Stunden Zählen, included in this show, in which every syllable fills one second, have a strong rational consistency. The Scottish artist Katie Paterson (*1981) is fascinated by the universe and shows photos of areas in deep space devoid of any light sources.
Accompanying musical programme:
01: Aldo Clementi (1925-2011) – Madrigale (1978) (08’30”) Ives Ensemble https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB-nmVWJJxY
02: Laurence Crane (b. 1961) – 20th Century Music (1999) (03’00”) John Snijders – piano https://soundcloud.com/john-snijders/sets/oeuvres
03: Laurence Crane (b. 1961) – Andrew Renton becomes and international art critic (1989) (05’02”) John Snijders – piano https://soundcloud.com/john-snijders/sets/oeuvres
04: Tom Johnson (b. 1939) – Narayana’s Cows (Dutch version) (1989) (15’52”) Joost Prinsen – voice & Ives Ensemble https://soundcloud.com/john-snijders/sets/oeuvres
05: John Cage (1912-1992) – Cheap Imitation (1969) (32’54”) Ives Ensemble https://soundcloud.com/john-snijders/sets/oeuvres
06: Alvin Lucier (b. 1931) – I am sitting in a room (1969) (45’23”) Alvin Lucier – voice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jU9mJbJsQ8
07: Morton Feldman (1926-1987) – Piano and String Quartet (1985) (1h14’27”) Ives Ensemble https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90eZP0z6TR8
08: Wolfgang von Schweinitz (b. 1953)– Franz and Morton, Singing Together in Harmony (with the LORD Himself Enjoying his Bells), Part 1 Op. 33a (1993/94) (34’34”) https://soundcloud.com/john-snijders/sets/oeuvres
09: Wolfgang von Schweinitz – Franz and Morton, Singing Together in Harmony (with the LORD Himself Enjoying his Bells), Part 2 op. 33b (1993/94) (45’42”) Ives Ensemble https://soundcloud.com/john-snijders/sets/oeuvres
Robbert-Jan Gijzen, Vooruitsig: 17 January – 14 February 2015
Slewe Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of the exhibition Vooruitsig by Dutch painter Robbert-Jan Gijzen (*1974, Weert). About ten new paintings will be on show. The exhibition opens Saturday January 17 and will run through February 14.
The paintings by Gijzen are both conceptual and expressionistic. For his all-over compositions he takes texts phrases, which he uses as a kind of graffiti elements, covered in the ritmic pattern of pasty painterly brushstrokes. The texts are derived from pop songs, which are telling us something about the dark side of life. Periods in his oeuvre can be catagorized in colors. After a black period, a yellow one and a red and blue period, Gijzen is now focused on a pink/green contrast.
Robbert-Jan Gijzen studied at the Stadsakademie in Maastricht and afterwards at de Ateliers in Amsterdam. In 1999 he won the Royal Dutch Prize for painting. After living partly in Antwerpen and Berlin he currently lives and works in Maastricht. Since 2000 he regularly exhibits at Slewe.