Jan van Munster, HARDCORE

Slewe Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of the exhibition HARDCORE by Dutch artist Jan van Munster (*1939). Van Munster, known for his impressive oeuvre of minimal geometric sculptures visualizing the phenomena of energy, will show new light works. It will be his first show at Slewe Gallery The exhibition opens Saturday November 9 and lasts until December 21and will be part of the Amsterdam Art Weekend from November 21 to 24. You can listen to an interview with Jan van Munster on his exhibition on line here.

Jan van Munster, whose work was recently subject of a solo show at the Museum Kröller-Müller in Otterlo, is one of the most remarkable and influential artists in the Netherlands today. He works with various sources of energy, such as cold and heat, light and electricity or magnetism. His work is about contrasts, positive-negative, light-dark or warm-cold. In addition to a strong physical element, they also show spiritual powers as a metaphor for life. In the sixties his career started showing along with other famous artists as Ad Dekkers, Peter Struycken and Marinus Boezem. In these years Van Munster worked with traditional materials, such as marble, stone, iron and steel, but since the seventies he started to use polyester, granite, mercury and neon tubes as materials to load with energy. In the same period, he made films of his performances, in which he used his own body to show energy. Recently he translated his brainactivities into neon sculptures.

Over the years Jan van Munster created a unique art domain around a water tower at the island of Walcheren in Zeeland. It is a place for living, producing art and showing the works in an ideal context. His works can be found in many cities in the Netherlands and Germany, in important private and public collections, such as the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Museum Kröller-Müller a.o. He received various art prizes, such as recently the German Light Art Award (Deutsche Lichtkunstpreis), for which he will have an exhibition at Kunstmuseum Celle in Spring 2020.