Common Ground 2:
Connect in Color

Snæfell, a remote Icelandic mountain, is a magical and unique place. The kaleidoscopic skies above its peak and the constantly changing colors of the surrounding landscape make it a major and much photographed attraction. 'Skies over Snaefell', a light installation by Allard van Hoorn (1968, the Netherlands), represents these changing skies. A computer continuously trawling the Internet for images of Snæfell, controls the installation’s iridescent globes in transient hues. The Internet images are indexed and software separates the skies from the mountain. Van Hoorn’s eerily beautiful work shows us the Internet-based abstract reality of the skies over Snæfell, which may be all that remains of if our natural surroundings are not protected for posterity.

'Skies over Snaefell' came into being as a three-way collaboration between De Appel arts center, Amsterdam, the Mondriaan Fund and Van Hoorn.

‘Ponte de Villa du Gamek, Luanda, Angola’ by Lard Buurman (1969, the Netherlands) is from the series ‘Africa Junctions’, for which Buurman travelled to fourteen cities in twelve African countries over a period of six years (2008-2014). His aim: to capture and record the changing rhythms and informal, oftentimes chaotic, networks of African cities; places which remain largely ‘invisible’ to many Westerners. Buurman’s images form a cross between documentary and staged photography: the final image is recreated retrospectively in Buurman’s studio using multiple exposures taken from the same perspective. In times of increasing globalization and urbanization, Buurman hypothesizes that his work may “give us an idea about a possible future for our own cities.”

‘Suntrap VIII’ (2011) by Esther Jiskoot (1963, the Netherlands) is part of a larger series of sculptures with which she seeks to capture the luminescent beauty of the sun’s rays. Rendered in a blaze of yellow, ‘Suntrap VIII’ bears witness to Jiskoot’s practice of integrating divergent materials with glass beads, which she strings on long threads before crocheting or knitting them into various forms. Titles are integral to Jiskoot’s work. "They form part of the sensory aspect thereof” she says, and also the key to understanding them. This work, resembling an old fashioned hunter’s trap, the ribs of which are formed by (or maybe infused with) rays of sunlight, embodies both the promise and impossibility of harnessing the power of one of nature’s most majestic natural resources: the sun.

The ordinary was freed from burden of the listless gaze when Jan Roeland (1935–2016, the Netherlands) would paint. Though his work may, to a degree, be seen as abstract, with Roeland abstraction never begets bewilderment. He painted an object’s essence, as you can see with this artwork ‘Tulip’ (2011-2012), using his idiosyncratic and often humorous approach. Perhaps the object loses the complexity of the individual in Roeland’s work, but what is won is the potency of a field containing form. The object connects with its surroundings, takes position and speaks in lucent tones.

Frank Haverman’s (1967, the Netherlands) studio for Architectural Art, Design and Urban Space makes strategic site-specific interventions through which the human body can relate to the outside world from within its own secure environment. In a world where everything is about efficiency, speed and standardization, Havermans delivers innovative solutions that cater both to the individual and to the collective. Commissioned by the AkzoNobel Art Foundation for the Art Space, ‘KAPKAR/ WS1P- AN’ (2018) redefines this communal area giving it new meaning. Executed with our coatings, Haverman’s installation represents a unique fusion of common and personal ground. Suspended between two pillars is a one-person workspace. A place of seclusion and shelter, yet in full view of and open to all. ‘KAPKAR/ WS1P- AN’ is truly a work place in the air.

Gijs Frieling (1966, the Netherlands) is renowned for his vibrantly decorative immersive murals. Commissioned especially for the exhibition ‘Common Ground’, Frieling’s work entitled ‘Common Background’ (2018) is a vision of sublime and pristine beauty. Looking out from the shelter of a cool verdant grove, with only God’s creatures for company, the viewer’s gaze roams across a broad expanse of water before alighting upon distant snowcapped mountains. Pink-fringed clouds float gently above each of the mountain’s peaks, like wooly caps waiting to settle upon their craggy heads. "Before we learn to read and write, arming ourselves with words as a means of navigating reality, we do not perceive nature as a force distinct from ourselves,” says Frieling. This primal relationship between nature and mankind is our common background. It must be rekindled and nurtured. Frieling’s Arcadian vision appeals to the all too human desire of becoming re-rooted in, and being in harmony with, innocent nature. It forms a welcome respite from the realities of a world increasingly defined by digitalization, urbanization, globalization and concurrent feelings of detachment.

‘Tatiana (Butterfly)’ (2017) by Hans Op de Beeck (1969, Belgium) is part of a series of life-sized sculptures with matt grey, concrete-like ‘skins’. This work, named after the little girl who stood model for it, evokes a sense of enchantment. Tatiana sits motionless with eyes closed. A butterfly has fluttered onto her outstretched index finger. Always keen to stimulate the viewer’s senses, Op de Beeck’s sculpture doesn’t return our gaze, forcing us to imagine what the girl is feeling. This serenely meditative work speaks to the poetics of small gestures, to the little things in life that form the singular focus of children but are so often overlooked in adulthood. ‘Tatiana (Butterfly)’ takes us back to the shared realm of childhood dreams.

Miguel Ybáñez (1946, Spain) uses a wide variety of techniques and materials to make his art. His Arte Povera reaches into the common imagination, the species of memory that extends beyond the individual. In 'El Museo de Iusion', Ybáñez assembles brightly painted pieces of plywood and various objects resulting in a surprising piece of art which the viewer, nonetheless, seems to remember ever so vaguely.

Since 2004, Charles Avery (1973, United Kingdom) has been working on ‘The Islanders’: his epic project devoted to mapping a fictitious island. Avery charts his imaginary world using all manner of media, developing a history, culture, belief system and society for it. At the heart of the Island lies the city Onomatopoeia. ‘Untitled (Tree No. 1 for the Jadingadendar)' (2012), ripe with fruit made out of wax hanging from its steel branches, is taken from Onomatopoeia’s municipal garden Jadingadendar in which the plants are all dead, the inhabitants of the Island having refuted nature. Alien yet strangely familiar, the world of ‘The Islanders’ is not utopian and functions as a mirror for our own society.

Since 2004, Charles Avery (1973, United Kingdom) has been working on ‘The Islanders’: his epic project devoted to mapping a fictitious island. Avery charts his imaginary world using all manner of media, developing a history, culture, belief system and society for it. At the heart of the Island lies the city Onomatopoeia. ‘Untitled (Tree No. 1 for the Jadingadendar)’, ripe with wax fruit hanging from its steel branches, is taken from Onomatopoeia’s municipal garden Jadingadendar in which the plants are all dead, the inhabitants of the Island having refuted nature. Alien yet strangely familiar, the world of ‘The Islanders’ is not utopian and functions as a mirror for our own society.

Eelco Brand (1969, the Netherlands) creates digitally animated make-believe worlds. In 'BL. movi' (2012), two amorphous blue shapes in a forest clearing engage in a fantastical pas de deux, continuously melting together and separating. The work’s blue protagonists stand like sentinels in front of the screen waiting to re-enter their natural habitat, forming an intriguing juxtaposition between image and matter. The blue sculptures are sprayed with car refinishes, which are probably well-known for AkzoNobel employees. Working from an old bubblegum factory in Breda, Brand acts out the role of creator of a hyperreal universe creating technically perfect simulacra of an imperfect nature constantly threatened by human intervention. For Brand this is a way of coming to terms with reality whilst simultaneously reaching for the impossible.

The paintings of Robert Zandvliet (1970, the Netherlands) straddle the divide between the abstract and the figurative. When starting out, Zandvliet would paint mundane objects, simplifying and greatly magnifying them, but since the late nineties he has drawn inspiration from figurative art and nature. While his emphasis used to be on form and line, his landscapes now revolve around the fluency of his brush and the rhythm of his touch. What he is concerned with is light, space and slowness. More than that, what interests Zandvliet is the power of paint on canvas to enrapture us.

The paintings of Robert Zandvliet (1970, the Netherlands) straddle the divide between the abstract and the figurative. When starting out, Zandvliet would paint mundane objects, simplifying and greatly magnifying them, but since the late nineties he has drawn inspiration from figurative art and nature. While his emphasis used to be on form and line, his landscapes now revolve around the fluency of his brush and the rhythm of his touch. What he is concerned with is light, space and slowness. More than that, what interests Zandvliet is the power of paint on canvas to enrapture us.

The paintings of Robert Zandvliet (1970, the Netherlands) straddle the divide between the abstract and the figurative. When starting out, Zandvliet would paint mundane objects, simplifying and greatly magnifying them, but since the late nineties he has drawn inspiration from figurative art and nature. While his emphasis used to be on form and line, his landscapes now revolve around the fluency of his brush and the rhythm of his touch. What he is concerned with is light, space and slowness. More than that, what interests Zandvliet is the power of paint on canvas to enrapture us.

“Depth must be hidden on the surface,” Austrian poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal once said. These works by Dirk Salz (1962, Germany) form a pure expression of this paradoxical sentiment. Created by distributing multiple layers of pigment-enriched epoxy resin to a cork base, Salz’s objects, which he calls paintings, draw the viewer’s eye into unfathomable depths of color, while at the same time reflecting both the viewer and its surroundings. Depth pulls the viewer in while the many reflections push the viewer out, inspiring spectators to slow down, think and feel.

“Depth must be hidden on the surface,” Austrian poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal once said. These works by Dirk Salz (1962, Germany) form a pure expression of this paradoxical sentiment. Created by distributing multiple layers of pigment-enriched epoxy resin to a cork base, Salz’s objects, which he calls paintings, draw the viewer’s eye into unfathomable depths of color, while at the same time reflecting both the viewer and its surroundings. Depth pulls the viewer in while the many reflections push the viewer out, inspiring spectators to slow down, think and feel.

“Depth must be hidden on the surface,” Austrian poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal once said. These works by Dirk Salz (1962, Germany) form a pure expression of this paradoxical sentiment. Created by distributing multiple layers of pigment-enriched epoxy resin to a cork base, Salz’s objects, which he calls paintings, draw the viewer’s eye into unfathomable depths of color, while at the same time reflecting both the viewer and its surroundings. Depth pulls the viewer in while the many reflections push the viewer out, inspiring spectators to slow down, think and feel.

“Depth must be hidden on the surface,” Austrian poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal once said. These works by Dirk Salz (1962, Germany) form a pure expression of this paradoxical sentiment. Created by distributing multiple layers of pigment-enriched epoxy resin to a cork base, Salz’s objects, which he calls paintings, draw the viewer’s eye into unfathomable depths of color, while at the same time reflecting both the viewer and its surroundings. Depth pulls the viewer in while the many reflections push the viewer out, inspiring spectators to slow down, think and feel.

“Depth must be hidden on the surface,” Austrian poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal once said. These works by Dirk Salz (1962, Germany) form a pure expression of this paradoxical sentiment. Created by distributing multiple layers of pigment-enriched epoxy resin to a cork base, Salz’s objects, which he calls paintings, draw the viewer’s eye into unfathomable depths of color, while at the same time reflecting both the viewer and its surroundings. Depth pulls the viewer in while the many reflections push the viewer out, inspiring spectators to slow down, think and feel.

Femke Schaap (1972, the Netherlands) makes video installations which combine space and the image by projecting footage onto polystyrene cut-outs. Her work reflects on societal tensions which become tangible through the relationships between the projected characters.
Schaap’s tabletop video installations show how constructed realities imprint on our perception. Her large installations offer participation in an immersive filmic world. The viewer can literally participate in the work and experience the tension between the projections and the physical surroundings.

Though it may be tempting to call the work of artist and designer Chan Chiao Chun (1984, Taiwan) strange, it is the kind of strangeness which is created in collusion with reason. His work is never more than a few steps removed from recognizable normalcy, undermining and defining it in the process. In the same vein, 'The Dependent Object No. 0.5' (2016) displaces both body and mind by requiring their constant participation, emphasizing the oftentimes forgotten collaborative nature of the objects we surround ourselves with.

Prudencio Irazábal (1954, Spain) is known for his highly defined technique of abstract acrylic painting, characterized by a vast number of translucent layers added onto each other, finished by a polished mirror-like surface. The relation between surface and depth is vital for the understanding of his abstract images. Color, mediated by the transit of light through paper-thin layers, constitutes a unique perceptual experience. This merging of translucent layers shapes the incoming light but allows the eye to traverse through to the white canvas.

Prudencio Irazábal (1954, Spain) is known for his highly defined technique of abstract acrylic painting, characterized by a vast number of translucent layers added onto each other, finished by a polished mirror-like surface. The relation between surface and depth is vital for the understanding of his abstract images. Color, mediated by the transit of light through paper-thin layers, constitutes a unique perceptual experience. This merging of translucent layers shapes the incoming light but allows the eye to traverse through to the white canvas.

George Korsmit (1953, the Netherlands) has made chance the ordering principle of his work. The structure—as opposed to composition—of his works follows a strict sequence of chance-driven actions. Korsmit determines the number of sides to his works’ characteristic irregular patches of color by rolling a die. Coloration is determined in an equally random manner by blind selection from a box of color swatches. Korsmit thus surrenders artistic subjectivity to what he calls ‘ritualistic chance’. The result: colorful, pulsating flat surfaces that provide no resting place for the eye.    

George Korsmit (1953, the Netherlands) has made chance the ordering principle of his work. The structure—as opposed to composition—of his works follows a strict sequence of chance-driven actions. Korsmit determines the number of sides to his works’ characteristic irregular patches of color by rolling a die. Coloration is determined in an equally random manner by blind selection from a box of color swatches. Korsmit thus surrenders artistic subjectivity to what he calls ‘ritualistic chance’. The result: colorful, pulsating flat surfaces that provide no resting place for the eye.    

JCJ Vanderheyden’s (1928-2012, the Netherlands) multifarious oeuvre is characterized by his use of simple methods, such as divisions, gradients, strongly contrasting stretches of color and illusionary fields. As a painter he wanted to distance himself from the act of painting, researching the fundamental principles of painting and perception with great subtlety. His many years of work resulted in an extensive network woven from the two most fundamental categories of time and space, using it to catch the many interrelations of the brain and the eye.

Reassuringly old-fashioned in appearance, these works by Rory Pilgrim (1988, United Kingdom) are intended to make the viewer stop and think about what binds us as humans. Their phrases are taken from the film 'Violently Speaking': the first in a cycle of films by Pilgrim titled 'Sacred Repositories'. The film is characteristic of Pilgrim’s socially engaged art practice. It depicts divergent groups from different geographic communities giving voice to commonly felt concerns relating to self-expression, social justice and equality. These works reflect Pilgrim’s belief that words can be used as a real method of action and must, for this reason, not be lost to his generation.

Reassuringly old-fashioned in appearance, these works by Rory Pilgrim (1988, United Kingdom) are intended to make the viewer stop and think about what binds us as humans. Their phrases are taken from the film 'Violently Speaking': the first in a cycle of films by Pilgrim titled 'Sacred Repositories'. The film is characteristic of Pilgrim’s socially engaged art practice. It depicts divergent groups from different geographic communities giving voice to commonly felt concerns relating to self-expression, social justice and equality. These works reflect Pilgrim’s belief that words can be used as a real method of action and must, for this reason, not be lost to his generation.

Reassuringly old-fashioned in appearance, these works by Rory Pilgrim (1988, United Kingdom) are intended to make the viewer stop and think about what binds us as humans. Their phrases are taken from the film 'Violently Speaking': the first in a cycle of films by Pilgrim titled 'Sacred Repositories'. The film is characteristic of Pilgrim’s socially engaged art practice. It depicts divergent groups from different geographic communities giving voice to commonly felt concerns relating to self-expression, social justice and equality. These works reflect Pilgrim’s belief that words can be used as a real method of action and must, for this reason, not be lost to his generation.

In his work, Paul Kooiker (1964, the Netherlands) investigates the act of ‘looking’. His photographs conjure questions about the part played by the gaze and the subject, the motivations of both photographer and viewer, and the photographer as a viewer. In 'Political Chaos' (2008), Kooiker highlights that muddled zone where the false intimacy of propaganda—only meaningfully different from modern reality TV and tabloids in its application—and the equally false abstraction granted by distance interact. We see figures swimming in the sea at Xiamen, a dot spied from a distance; we know of Mao Zedong who made a point of having himself photographed while swimming as to prove his vitality and modest beginnings, and somewhere in-between, uncertainty grows.

In his work, Paul Kooiker (1964, the Netherlands) investigates the act of ‘looking’. His photographs conjure questions about the part played by the gaze and the subject, the motivations of both photographer and viewer, and the photographer as a viewer. In 'Political Chaos' (2008), Kooiker highlights that muddled zone where the false intimacy of propaganda—only meaningfully different from modern reality TV and tabloids in its application—and the equally false abstraction granted by distance interact. We see figures swimming in the sea at Xiamen, a dot spied from a distance; we know of Mao Zedong who made a point of having himself photographed while swimming as to prove his vitality and modest beginnings, and somewhere in-between, uncertainty grows.

In his work, Paul Kooiker (1964, the Netherlands) investigates the act of ‘looking’. His photographs conjure questions about the part played by the gaze and the subject, the motivations of both photographer and viewer, and the photographer as a viewer. In 'Political Chaos' (2008), Kooiker highlights that muddled zone where the false intimacy of propaganda—only meaningfully different from modern reality TV and tabloids in its application—and the equally false abstraction granted by distance interact. We see figures swimming in the sea at Xiamen, a dot spied from a distance; we know of Mao Zedong who made a point of having himself photographed while swimming as to prove his vitality and modest beginnings, and somewhere in-between, uncertainty grows.

In his work, Paul Kooiker (1964, the Netherlands) investigates the act of ‘looking’. His photographs conjure questions about the part played by the gaze and the subject, the motivations of both photographer and viewer, and the photographer as a viewer. In 'Political Chaos' (2008), Kooiker highlights that muddled zone where the false intimacy of propaganda—only meaningfully different from modern reality TV and tabloids in its application—and the equally false abstraction granted by distance interact. We see figures swimming in the sea at Xiamen, a dot spied from a distance; we know of Mao Zedong who made a point of having himself photographed while swimming as to prove his vitality and modest beginnings, and somewhere in-between, uncertainty grows.

In his work, Paul Kooiker (1964, the Netherlands) investigates the act of ‘looking’. His photographs conjure questions about the part played by the gaze and the subject, the motivations of both photographer and viewer, and the photographer as a viewer. In 'Political Chaos' (2008), Kooiker highlights that muddled zone where the false intimacy of propaganda—only meaningfully different from modern reality TV and tabloids in its application—and the equally false abstraction granted by distance interact. We see figures swimming in the sea at Xiamen, a dot spied from a distance; we know of Mao Zedong who made a point of having himself photographed while swimming as to prove his vitality and modest beginnings, and somewhere in-between, uncertainty grows.

In his work, Paul Kooiker (1964, the Netherlands) investigates the act of ‘looking’. His photographs conjure questions about the part played by the gaze and the subject, the motivations of both photographer and viewer, and the photographer as a viewer. In 'Political Chaos' (2008), Kooiker highlights that muddled zone where the false intimacy of propaganda—only meaningfully different from modern reality TV and tabloids in its application—and the equally false abstraction granted by distance interact. We see figures swimming in the sea at Xiamen, a dot spied from a distance; we know of Mao Zedong who made a point of having himself photographed while swimming as to prove his vitality and modest beginnings, and somewhere in-between, uncertainty grows.

The artistic output of Gijs Assmann (1966, the Netherlands) is prodigious, varied and infused with humor. 'Coulda' and 'Shoulda' (2015) are part of a tri-part series, the third piece being called 'Woulda'. The titles are a playful reference to the rhyming compound ‘Shoulda-Coulda-Woulda’ in which each of the three elisions means something different, but when taken together convey a unified meaning: ‘spare me the useless excuses.’ 'Coulda' and 'Shoulda' - a ceramic ship and zeppelin set in glass domes that were used in the company’s former laboratory - speak to Assmann’s artisanal interest in ships in bottles and are in fact references to a message in a bottle. The boat and zeppelin symbolize a commonly felt longing to escape to a better place. However, the imprisoning domes thwart any such journey. Assmann’s addition of symbols of intoxication completes the suggestion of journeys imagined.  

'Lost in Paradise' by Renske van Enckevort (1985, the Netherlands) is a feast for the eye. Fleshy pink, egg yolk yellow, mauve, turquoise and various shades of orange, green and blue form a lyrical counterpoint to the darker colors defining the canvas’s lower right quadrant. The impression is that of a window looking out over a fantastical garden. In this work, Van Enckevort uses the medieval compositional device of the arch to direct the viewer’s gaze. The image is not Christian allegorical, but rather Van Enckevort’s rendition of a mutable, digitalized landscape. The arched window symbolizes the plethora of Internet windows we open daily, and through which we unthinkingly lose ourselves in paradise-like virtual worlds. 'Lost in Paradise' (2015) cautions us against disconnecting too much from the common ground of reality.

'Chandelier' (2017) forms part of a series of photographs entitled 'TITO — an Islands Paradise' that Friso Keuris (1963, the Netherlands) took while visiting Tito's summer residence on the Brijuni Islands, just off the coast of Croatia. Many foreign heads of state visited Tito at his island hide-away, and it was here that the Brijuni Declaration was signed in 1991 putting an end to hostilities between Slovenia and Croatia and effectively signaling the dissolution of Yugoslavia. Uninhabited and closed to the public since Tito’s death in 1980, the villa is kept in mint condition, frozen in time. Nothing in Keuris’ intensely still, ultra-sharp image speaks to the depicted room’s turbulent history, nor to the ghosts of the past that drift through it. According to the artist, 'Chandelier' bears silent witness to the beginning and end of the Yugoslavian dream in which Tito firmly believed. 

It is often problematic to describe a specific visual language as it is to define a specific culture; the previous is a subset of the latter. It’s the intangible sum of meanings, customs and interpretations expressed in much of art: visual language used to describe culture. The work of Ryan McGinness (1972, United States) makes this process its explicit subject. His visual language is specific, dazzlingly combining his collection of thousands of symbols and style phenomena to create a contemporary analysis of intuition and a language entirely his own. You see this for example in this work, titled 'H.O.L.L.A.N.D. (Hope Our Love Lasts And Never Dies)' from 2006, in which you see various symbols and style phenomena that are typically Dutch, such as the chandeliers. The acronym from the title was used by American soldiers in the Netherlands during the Second World War, to communicate to their sweethearts at home.

Han Schuil (1958, the Netherlands) is an artist who refuses to be defined, following instead whatever runs through his mind. With an impressive intensity what moves is captured in brightly and powerfully colored paintings and sculptures. Schuil mostly works with aluminum, increasing the intensity of his colors while referring to industrial production. The surface of the aluminum however, is battered and dented, as if it had to be bent back into shape and ironed out; a cheerful and ironic nod, perhaps, to “proper” art which, of course, shouldn’t be battered and dented.

Han Schuil (1958, the Netherlands) is an artist who refuses to be defined, following instead whatever runs through his mind. With an impressive intensity what moves is captured in brightly and powerfully colored paintings and sculptures. Schuil mostly works with aluminum, increasing the intensity of his colors while referring to industrial production. The surface of the aluminum however, is battered and dented, as if it had to be bent back into shape and ironed out; a cheerful and ironic nod, perhaps, to “proper” art which, of course, shouldn’t be battered and dented.

'Polinaziacion' (2006) is a raucous body of work that Douglas Pérez Castro (1972, Cuba) has created; raucous, but not random, because perceptible through all the bustle and hum of his paintings, is a smiling mind using many perspectives at once. This work for example, painted with strong colors is, in a humorous way, about how to flee. With its display of curiosity, virtuosity, moral complexity and breadth of knowledge, it might — as is necessarily true for all humor of any worth — even be called highly intellectual and deeply human.

Maria Roosen's (1957, The Netherlands) 'Droomhuis' is made up of a number of free global forms on which the rough outlines of windows and doors have been applied. Encased in gold leaf, precious and pure, and as gently suggested by the title, this sculpture bears the idea of the ideal house: the bode of bliss. Roosen's work, which rose to prominence largely for her sensual glass sculptures, is sometimes described as a plea for the imagination in our world dominated by facts and practical usefulness. 

Having emigrated from China to the Netherlands at the age of fourteen, Xiaoxiao Xu (1984, China) describes photography as the “antidote to the isolation she felt, and a way of defining herself intuitively without need for language.” An article in a Dutch newspaper, telling of residents from remote agricultural regions in China building homemade aircraft, formed the inspiration for her series ‘Aeronautics in the Backyard’of which 'Untitled' is part of. Xu travelled to China to record this absurd yet infinitely appealing phenomenon. The resulting images attest to beauty and humor in everyday life and leave room for the viewer to dream, just like the Chinese ‘aeronauts’ portrayed therein.

Job Koelewijn’s (1962, the Netherlands) varied body of work oftentimes has a certain fragility to it. These works are conceptual intonations wherein contradictions manifest before dissipating. In 'A Balancing Act' (1998) — a photograph taken during his residency with PS 1 in New York — Lower Manhattan is set askew. We see the artist stand between sternly towering facades of concrete, steel and glass. He is carrying his own tower, built eighteen stories high from drinking glasses and wooden boards, but the curve of his tilting tower opposes the city’s structure, and the tension is set in the artist’s body. It is a single moment granting neither the certainty of permanence, nor the certainty of silence after the crash; a moment where humanity, always vacillating between the two, takes its place.

In today’s society, questions of identity, culture and integration continuously grow more portentous, while they’re discussed in serious tones. While gravity is justifiably employed it may cause one to forget the subtlety — and the absurdity — with which these matters tend to manifest in daily life, while it’s precisely these minutes, seemingly innocent instances that mark our experience. It is in this sphere that Benjamin Li (1985, the Netherlands) makes his art and examines his subject. Born in the Netherlands to Chinese migrant parents, Li created the series ‘Yellow’ as a means to explore the production, and especially the reproduction, of the identity he is continuously assigned: his expressions, his style, values and, as is to be expected, his color — the so-called yellow that loses its depth and is shown, in 'Choice' (2011) — to be an artificial distinction.

Beni Bischof’s (1976, Switzerland) work is characterized by intuitive gestures, cynical humor and a clear preference for chaos. In his playful collages Bischof combines details from novels, magazines, advertisements and the virtual world. Bischof’s work can be read as an ironic commentary on the banality of everyday life. “Daily routine is boring somehow. My work is a way to escape from that, pretty much my own universe with own rules”, says Bischof. 

Beni Bischof’s (1976, Switzerland) work is characterized by intuitive gestures, cynical humor and a clear preference for chaos. In his playful collages Bischof combines details from novels, magazines, advertisements and the virtual world. Bischof’s work can be read as an ironic commentary on the banality of everyday life. “Daily routine is boring somehow. My work is a way to escape from that, pretty much my own universe with own rules”, says Bischof. His 'Car Floating' (2017) are about the alteration of forms; when altering the image of an object, it is often accompanied with a change of the object’s meaning or function. The cars seem to be floating out of an instant, which strikes the eye.

Beni Bischof’s (1976, Switzerland) work is characterized by intuitive gestures, cynical humor and a clear preference for chaos. In his playful collages Bischof combines details from novels, magazines, advertisements and the virtual world. Bischof’s work can be read as an ironic commentary on the banality of everyday life. “Daily routine is boring somehow. My work is a way to escape from that, pretty much my own universe with own rules”, says Bischof. His 'Car Floating' (2017) are about the alteration of forms; when altering the image of an object, it is often accompanied with a change of the object’s meaning or function. The cars seem to be floating out of an instant, which strikes the eye.

Sound-, installation-, and performance artist Allard van Hoorn (1968, the Netherlands) conducts research into urban environments. “I’m interested in how we relate to public space” clarifies the artist. With 'MATCHMAKER', a project conducted in Salvador de Bahia (Brazil) and Shanghai (China) in 2008, Van Hoorn set himself the task of mapping these cities according to their Pantoneâ Color Matching System classification codes. In a process akin to that of an explorer charting unknown territory, Van Hoorn thus sought to translate his subjective experience of urban surroundings into a standardized visual reference system. 'MATCHMAKER' is not only about being an observer; it examines mapping as a way of exercising control over the landscape and investigates how language and codes are used to create common systems of reference and representation.

Sound-, installation-, and performance artist Allard van Hoorn (1968, the Netherlands) conducts research into urban environments. “I’m interested in how we relate to public space” clarifies the artist. With 'MATCHMAKER', a project conducted in Salvador de Bahia (Brazil) and Shanghai (China) in 2008, Van Hoorn set himself the task of mapping these cities according to their Pantoneâ Color Matching System classification codes. In a process akin to that of an explorer charting unknown territory, Van Hoorn thus sought to translate his subjective experience of urban surroundings into a standardized visual reference system. 'MATCHMAKER' is not only about being an observer; it examines mapping as a way of exercising control over the landscape and investigates how language and code are used to create common systems of reference and representation.

Sound-, installation-, and performance artist Allard van Hoorn (1968, the Netherlands) conducts research into urban environments. “I’m interested in how we relate to public space” clarifies the artist. With 'MATCHMAKER', a project conducted in Salvador de Bahia (Brazil) and Shanghai (China) in 2008, Van Hoorn set himself the task of mapping these cities according to their Pantoneâ Color Matching System classification codes. In a process akin to that of an explorer charting unknown territory, Van Hoorn thus sought to translate his subjective experience of urban surroundings into a standardized visual reference system. 'MATCHMAKER' is not only about being an observer; it examines mapping as a way of exercising control over the landscape and investigates how language and code are used to create common systems of reference and representation.

Jennifer Tee (1973, the Netherlands) is a Dutch artist of Chinese-Indonesian descent who engages with issues of cultural identity in a world in which disparate cultures are constantly overlapping and interacting, creating new and uncharted
common ground. Tampan (2013), made entirely of dried and pressed tulip petals, is patterned after Tampan Sumatran Ship Cloths: woven cloths used for ritual occasions marking the passage of life. Tee’s use of the tulip, iconic to Dutch culture but originally from Persia, in combination with Indonesian imagery speaks to modern-day complexities of migration and cultural identity.

Harry Markusse (1990, the Netherlands) is inspired by minimalism: the challenge is to create an image using the least amount of actions. What appeals to Markusse most is color, light, rhythm, repetition and dynamics. The search for harmony within these aspects makes Markusse encounter new concepts while making it possible to let go of former ideas. These developments as a young artist go hand in hand with a passion for experimenting with new techniques and materials. The continuing search for aesthetics, perfection and form within Markusse’s style is the driving force within his oeuvre while constantly renewing and challenging himself.

Ellert Haitjema (1958, the Netherlands) has found a way to make art out of time, or, to be more precise, out of that strange beauty possessed by objects marked with the many kinds of traces time may leave—fading hues, accumulations, oxidation, and, most of all, the various uses and constellations of a storied past. But these elements and their unique aesthetic we are all inherently sensitive to, aren’t used to create wholly melancholy, nostalgic or even retrospective work. Instead, Haitjema elevates them, imbuing them into unique objects, both vibrantly alive and with great presence

Works of art by Bernard Frize (1949, France) do not contain any recognizable representations: they convey the art of painting pure and simple, free of subjective elements. Frize is chiefly concerned with the tools he uses, such as the chemical composition of his paint, the types of brush, and the quality of his material. In his début period, one of his characteristics was to use brushes that were intended for painting boats.

Works of art by Bernard Frize (1949, France) do not contain any recognizable representations: they convey the art of painting pure and simple, free of subjective elements. Frize is chiefly concerned with the tools he uses, such as the chemical composition of his paint, the types of brush, and the quality of his material. In his début period, one of his characteristics was to use brushes that were intended for painting boats.

In Sigrid Calon’s (1969, the Netherlands) book 'TO THE EXTEND OF / \ ' (2012), playfulness and analysis perfectly overlap, proving to be inextricably linked to one another. Starting from a basic embroidery grid and a few elementary rules, the artist dissects line and color, employing them to reveal the astonishing abundance which may be born from such simple beginnings; a book filled with the spirit of discovery and cheerful beauty.

Clear lines and sweeping color planes define this, characteristically reductive and compositionally controlled, panoramic work by Robert Zandvliet (1970, the Netherlands). Abstract in appearance, the piece is firmly rooted in reality. The artist’s departure point for 'Untitled' (1994) was an old-fashioned vending stall for “poffertjes”: small traditional Dutch puffed pancakes. Picked out in sunny yellow, the scalloped awning and baseboard of the stall can be made out in a work otherwise devoid of detail and context. The dark, partial framing of the image and its skewed perspective contribute to a sense of weightlessness; of an object floating in indeterminable, still space. For Zandvliet art is all about plumbing the depths of his subjects, in search of the archetype.

Han Schuil (1958, the Netherlands) is an artist who refuses to be defined, following instead whatever runs through his mind. With an impressive intensity what moves is captured in brightly and powerfully colored paintings and sculptures. Schuil mostly works with aluminum, increasing the intensity of his colors while referring to industrial production.