With the official team presentations, which will take place this evening, the Tour de France fever in our hometown Utrecht is slowly reaching a highpoint (with the tropical temperatures of recent days also playing a significant role in this development). Although the little brother of Amsterdam has gained significantly growing international attention in recent years, because of its beautiful canals and historical city center with a more laidback and less touristic atmosphere - for many people the host of the Grand Départ is still unknown territory. As we have been happily living in Utrecht for quite some years now, we teamed up with Rapha to introduce our city properly and created a little map with all of our favorite destinations when it comes to Food & Drinks, Art & Culture, Antiques & Obsessions, Fashion & Design, Markets & Flowers and Hideouts & Escapes, which we named Utrecht's Finest. For those first getting to know Utrecht, or those who are curious what it is what makes the city special for us. [ Continue reading ]

We’re back! After a bike ride of more than 250 km, from Utrecht to Antwerp and back, we all arrived safe at The Village coffee & music. I wanted to thank everybody for supporting us along the way! On first hand Rapha for the… [ Continue reading ]

On this early day in spring, with the first beams of sunlight on our face, we started of in Utrecht (the Netherlands) with a group of 10 friends. Bike builders, barista’s, bloggers and likes, on hand made bicycles from Elian Cycles. Now… [ Continue reading ]

On Saturday, March 12th, we will hit the road with eight friends to make a journey from Utrecht to Antwerp on the handmade bikes from Elian, to return the next day with fresh roasted coffee beans for the new espresso bar, The Village Coffee… [ Continue reading ]

From the moment we worked with Utrecht-based illustrator Lennard Kok for the rebrand of Travelteq in 2015, the ambition was set to collaborate again. Eventually it took another year to really sit down and discuss it. At that point Lennard confessed he wanted to explore new terrain in his artistic practice and shared his ambition to reach beyond illustration. Through our consensual admiration for certain inspirational artist editions, we set the bar at next level and eventually came to the conclusion this would mean we needed to take Lennard's clear lined flat signature and find a way to translate it into the sculptural. More so, as paradigms continue to shift under the pressures of digital globalization with significant fractures ahead of us that seem to usher in a new era, we searched for a statement that (at least in our heads) would mark the specific moment of creation.

In the dialogue that followed, we kept returning to a series of crashed vehicles Lennard had made earlier that year. When we finally started seeing the airplane out of that series as the ultimate symbol, we knew we had found our subject that represented everything we aimed for. From that moment Michiel Verweij joined the project to bring Lennard's vision to life in 3D and soon Suzan Becking formed the last element of the equation as we wanted to materialize the sculpture into the perfect paradox: a crashing plane made out of porcelain. The final quest for perfection started, and eventually took a little longer than we hoped, but Friday the 13th, at last, graphite on paper was transformed into a black porcelain sculpture which we named 'Fallen Bird'.

We are extremely proud to present the result of our shared endeavor and are very thankful for this inspirational experience alongside Lennard, Michiel and Suzan. Now it's time for this 'Fallen Bird' to find its way all over the world again... We are ready for the next one (stay tuned)! [ Continue reading ]

Park Groot Vijversburg is a beautiful park located in the small town of Tytsjerk, in the northernmost province of The Netherlands named Friesland, which has been open to the public since 1892. Throughout the year, the park hosts events such as art exhibitions, musical performances, church services and excursions. With a rich history of inhabiting a variety of flora and fauna, the heart of Park Groot Vijversburg has always been a neoclassicist mansion in the center of the park. With the  number of visitors growing significantly in the last two decade, six years ago Tokyo-based architect Junya Ishigami and Marieke Kums of Rotterdam practice Studio Maks were given the assignment to design an accommodation next to the villa that would enable Park Groot Vijversburg to host the bigger crowds.

Last May was the official opening of the new addition, next to other significant changes and additions to the park, resulting in an inspirational new face for the public area, having become one of the more beautiful spots in the country. But above all, what stands out within the reinvigoration Park Groot Vijversburg is the extraordinary vision that was materialized by Ishigami and Kums, which consists of three intersecting glass corridors that grow out of a sunken, triangular-shaped visitors centre — forming a deeply inspirational structure that, in the words of Ishigami: "melts into the environment," and is among the most impressive we have seen erupted in The Netherlands in a long time. [ Continue reading ]

We have been big fans of the work of Norway-based Iranian collage artist Ashkan Honarvar since his graduation days at the HKU University of the Arts in 2007. In the decade that followed, he has been steadily producing series after series on an extraordinary high level, dealing with reoccurring themes like colonialism, war, mass destruction, megalomania and other grotesque behavior. Always succeeding in creating imagery that is both intelligent and haunting, slightly repulsive but always captivating. In March of this year Ashkan presented another highly ambitious series of eight chapters named 'The Red Forest' that he has been releasing over the course of different weeks.

Within the new body of work, all of the different subseries touch the same ('Honarvar signature') aesthetic atmosphere and share the same underlying technique, but every chapter has its unique elements, telling different segments of the narrative. And although every chapter complements the strong emotion of the overarching concept, our favorite out of the body being the sixth, as shared below. The story behind 'The Red Forest' is based on the first seven years of Ashkan's life, growing up in Iran during the Iran-Iraq war, which at first sight suggests it is one of the most personal series till date. Yet the seamless fit of the series within the signature running through his portfolio, probably tells how personal his work always is, despite it referring to subjects that are much looser connected to the artist own history. One element within 'The Red Forest' that is a novelty is Ashkan's use of 3D renders, with the skulls and human figures (the female figure is Norwegian model Malena Morgwen) in this project, made with a 3D application Zbrush and then printed out and, as per usual, finished with handmade collage.

Both the subject-matter (as a point of reference for all of Ashkan's work) and this new layer of depth in the disfigurations of human representations, grabs us by the throat a little stronger than ever before, making 'The Red Forest' a significant development and possible important new chapter within the evolution of the brutally talented Ashkan Honarvar. Leaving us waiting eagerly where he will take these new artistic facets in the future.. [ Continue reading ]

Last Friday, the doors of the beautiful Capital C building in Amsterdam have opened for BIG ART. The new initiative of curator Anne van der Zwaag presenting over 50 XL artworks by contemporary artists and designers, running until the 27th of November in what used to be the Diamant Exchange of the city. A unique mix of acclaimed names and upcoming talents, monumental paintings, drawings, large sculptures, big photos and huge installations. As one of the official partners of BIG ART we will present some of our favorite artists included in the curation of van der Zwaag. Today, we focus on a longtime favorite of ours: Amsterdam-based artist Marijn Akkermans, with whom we talked about the development in his work after graduating from the art academy 15 years ago, the pressures of modern society and the installation-like presentation of his incredible work at BIG ART. [ Continue reading ]

It was a very long time coming when three weeks ago we finally met one of Belgium’s most exciting contemporary designers; Michaël Verheyden, in his beautiful home on the edge of industrial city Genk, in a green area towards neighboring Hasselt. Last year, Verheyden debuted as one of the names on Wallpaper* Magazine's Power List —underlining the widespread international recognition for his work— but even before that moment we were very curious to learn more out about his creative vision, basically from the moment we discovered his work in the beginning of 2015. The first appointment we made to get together dated back to March of this year, but time after time we were forced to reschedule due to different emerging obstructing circumstances on both sides. Eventually, we got in the car and finally traveled to the Belgian province of Limburg on a Friday afternoon in the beginning of June. Right after a period of extreme rainfall, which caused a lot of problems in the North of France and different parts of Belgium.

When we arrive Michaël is still in his jackboots, having just taken care of some minor water damage in his garden shed workplace –the one for heavier work– because of that rain. It is very clear that he isn’t too impressed by the damage though. In his mellow voice, speaking in the local soft toned accent and with lively eyes behind his spectacles, he tells us: “it will be fine.” A sentiment he continues to embody throughout our conversation during and after his guided tour of the wonderful house he calls home together with his wife and business partner Saartje Vereecke. [ Continue reading ]

We are big fans of the work of artist Ashkan Honarvar, being among the most thought-provoking collage artist working today. At the end of February the Iranian-born, Utrecht-schooled artist celebrated another milestone in his career with the opening of his very first solo exhibition at CES Gallery in Los Angeles named 'Sometimes I forget myself'. The exhibition features new works on paper from two recent bodies of work. The first series titled 'Denial of Death' is inspired by the writings of cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker, in particular his Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same name. The second series titled 'King of Worms', which we premiered online, references radical feminist filmmaker Jane Arden’s 'The Other Side of the Underneath' and its exploration of corruption, abuse of power, and gender inequality. Working exclusively in hand-cut collage Honarvar presents a mythic and visceral vision of humanity and its qualitative constructs.  [ Continue reading ]

Here's something to look forward to in the fast approaching new year. Amsterdam-based The Ravestijn Gallery will start 2016 tremendously with the show named 'The Magic Tree' featuring work by Dutch photographer Marie-José Jongerius, opening on the 15th of January. The story of the show starts all the way back in 1999, when Jongerius left for Los Angeles with the mission to photograph writers, actors and directors. With each car ride to a new photoshoot her fascination grew with the relentless attempt by the Americans to control this Californian landscape. For over ten years she has photographed places where human imagination and the force of nature interact, from artificial lakes to the edge of the advancing desert, of which an incredible selection is shown in Amsterdam. Her images of the isolated - sometimes freely in nature, sometimes peeking out of their man-made cages - are both mysterious and highly aesthetic, making 'The Magic Tree' a must visit next month. [ Continue reading ]

We discovered the talented Dutch painter Jurre Blom when his work was exhibited in last Summer's graduation show of the HKU University of the Arts Utrecht. Clearly standing out in the multi-story building filled with fine art graduate work, the captivating realistic paintings of Jurre even proved to be amongst our favorites from all Dutch academies, if not the favorite. The artist, being a child of the digital era, creates work directly representing remarkable scenes he finds on the internet. With an endless stream of photographs being unleashed every day, this field of inspiration proves to serve him endlessly. Rather unusual frames portraying familiar situations, often-times evoking a sense of awkwardness or discomfort, but always succeeding to intrigue - the photographs Blom selects are personal insights found through numerous chains of visually similar image searches through Google images, starting from his personal database of photographs of 'in between' moments. Keep an eye on this highly promising name! [ Continue reading ]

Our friend Koen Tossijn has come a long way since we both had a share in the 'Blue Jeans' exhibition, which took place over two years ago in the Centraal Museum in Utrecht. At that point Koen still solely focussed on bespoke denim with his label Atelier Tossijn, but his ambition always was to create a full wardrobe of staple piece items, boiled down to perfection. Born out of his longing for a greater quality of life and a fascination for the everyday, in the last two years Tossijn went on a quest to find a way to work outside and within the modern-day fashion industry. Instead of an ever-changing new collection, Tossijn aims to create one steady stream of everyday essential pieces, which he named fittingly the 'Wardrobe' collection. Designed to their most essential form and made in ton sur ton shades with only the best materials available, the pieces in the Wardrobe evolve over time in a constant search for perfection, which is seldom seen in modern fashion anymore. [ Continue reading ]

Some months ago we were asked by Utrecht-based studio Autobahn to participate in their '26 Creative Characters' project, which yesterday had its official debut in the newly opened Autobahn Gallery. The ambitious initiative celebrates the typographic diversity of todays graphic design, marking the 10th anniversary celebration of Maarten Dullemeijer and Rob Stolte's design studio. As part of 26 contemporary (typo)graphic designers - among which are Studio Airport, Baster, Jaap Biemans, Martin Pyper, Max Kisman and Thonik - we were invited to create our vision for the letter 'X'. The diverse outcome is a unique mix of styles, materials and ideas, with our design being directly inspired by and executed on a collection of 22 vintage wooden baseball bats, all individually numbered, carrying a little hand painted piece of the X. While creating the project we received numerous inquiries about the unique bats and therefore we decided to make them available for everyone in the newly revived Another Shop (with more coming in the near future!), where you can select your personal favorite numbered piece of the X. [ Continue reading ]

While putting the last hand on the design of the Mobile Cycle Club Europe we are doing for Rapha, they opened a new chapter of their famous Cycle Clubs, this time in our hometown Amsterdam. In the beautiful historical center of Amsterdam, on the 9 streets and around the corner of our new gallery/studio space of Our Current Obsessions (soon more on that...), Tenue de Nîmes and the Red Wing Shoes Store the Rapha Cycle Club Amsterdam welcomes road cyclists from every continent. Tales of glory, pain or suffering transcends their memory in this historical neighborhood.  Although a little challenging when tourist are flocking around, this will be the perfect place to start a ride, escaping the city for the windy northern water lands, making your round on the ‘Ronde Hoep’, or a longer ride towards Utrecht and the Amerongse Berg (Mountain of Amerongen with its 69,2 meter high, yes we have that). [ Continue reading ]

After premiering the first half of Ashkan Honarvar's ‘King of Worms’ last week, we now present a selection of the second half of the biggest project till date created by the Norway-based visionary. Ashkan has been producing collages for almost a decade now, both under his own name as the pseudonym Who Killed Mickey, always finding inspiration in the dark side of humanity and from the questions that rise about it. The extraordinary new project is no different; consisting of 107 collages, divided in 10 chapters with a unique aesthetic, although undeniably marked with Honarvar’s signature style. Today we ask him about that particular style and  his vision, inspirations from the dark side, Jane Arden’s film ‘The Other Side of the Underneath’ and how he translated this into a major work like 'King of Worms'. [ Continue reading ]

We are very excited to premiere to the world this brand new series of phenomenal collages named 'King of Worms', which is the biggest project till date created by one of our favorite artists period: Ashkan Honarvar. The Norway-based visionary has been producing collages for almost a decade now, both under his own name as the pseudonym Who Killed Mickey, always finding inspiration in the dark side of humanity and from the questions that rise about it. The extraordinary new project is no different; consisting of 107 collages, divided in 10 chapters with a unique aesthetic, although undeniably marked with Honarvar's signature style. It was inspired by a quote from Jane Arden's film The Other Side of the Underneath, with the overall theme focussing on how power corrupts and is abused as well as the role men play in this misuse and women’s faith. In our eyes Honarvar succeeded tremendously in created something like a second personal layer for the film, which has almost mythical status amongst fans of radical, experimental cinema, because of its visionary and disturbing depictions of the mental state of its schizophrenic protagonist. Today we share a selection of the first 5 chapters of 'King of Worms', with the other half coming soon. [ Continue reading ]

In this first chapter of a little series together with the fine tailors of Utrecht- and Amsterdam-based New Tailor, we're exploring some of the perfect garments offered by the tailoring house. Recently a whole new horizon was opened to us, when we were lucky enough to obtain one of their immaculate bespoke pieces; a perfect black jacket, which overshadows any other jacket we have worn before. Our perfect black jacket was cut from an extraordinary cloth produced by the famous Fox Brothers, who own one of the few working cloth mills still producing cloth entirely in England. Many Fox fabrics are exclusively developed for fashion designers, while other styles are inspired by the extensive Fox archives. The cloth used for the perfect black jacket is a pretty heavy one, weighing about 370 grams. After weaving the cloths is cleaned, shaved and then brushed in such a way that you get the perfect flannel. The jacket looks tremendous and is extraordinary to wear. Moreover everybody wants to touch the jacket due to its extreme softness, giving a natural warmth and making us not want to wear anything else, anymore. [ Continue reading ]

All of the incredibly talented Ashkan Honarvar’s art deals with the darker sides of the human mind through the undeniable and unavoidable beauty of the human body. The universal human body, used as tool for seeking identity, is the focal point of his work. By dissecting and rearranging images with careful aesthetic vision, Honarvar creates work with an intriguing macabre darkness. Since his graduation from the Art School in our hometown Utrecht in 2007 Ashkan has been making a name for himself with his utmost fascinating collages. Themes like colonialism, war, mass destruction, megalomania and other grotesque behavior are all observable in his progressively growing body of work. We can't get enough of his enthralling collages and love how the artist combines the abject with the aesthetic, creating images one can't stop looking at. Being very inspired by Ashkan's vision we asked him a couple questions to find out what inspires a highly unique mind like his. [ Continue reading ]

Atelier Haussmann is a Berlin-based studio founded by brothers Rainer and Andreas Haussmann, who started their shared endeavor in 1990. Simultaneously with the foundation of the studio the brothers created the brand Mobile Metallic, and under the two flags they create both interior designs and exclusive interior products out of iron which are made to last a lifetime. The products of Atelier Haussmann evoke the sentiment of remembrance. The iron stool in a workshop, the steel tube bed, the bench in the locker room. Many pieces are based on designs from the past, reinterpreted for contemporary times. Through the combination of citation, the return to traditional production techniques and new ideas Atelier Haussmann developed its own aesthetic, keeping away from fast fashion phenomena, with a clear focus on products made with the highest quality possible, always remaining with a timeless presence. [ Continue reading ]

Due to busy schedules on both ends, the collaboration between Our Current Obsessions and the very talented Ramon Haindl was realized only two days before the opening on Friday the 5th of September. On that grey Wednesday we got in the car at the end the of morning in Utrecht and drove to Ramon’s hometown Frankfurt, with the GERTRUD & GEORGE Overnighter which just had arrived a day earlier in the trunk, filling in the only shared gap in our agendas to get together. Ramon had been working early and long hours in Stuttgart the days before, and arrived back in Frankfurt only a few moments before we got there, which didn’t temper his or our enthusiasm to make it happen, no matter what was needed. The piece created by Ramon exemplifies his unpolished collage/mixed media approach in his free work, which we particularly love and special features his young dog Vila. The key inspiration for the piece lays in Ramon’s observation of a sharp parallel between the dog’s fur and the grain of the Buffalo leather used by GERTRUD & GEORGE, which he caught beautifully in this collage of analogue and digital photography plus handwritten text. [ Continue reading ]

Although there had been earlier clues towards it, last Friday one of our favorite artists of the moment, Ashkan Honarvar, announced that the collage works which have been released under the pseudonym Who Killed Mickey for the last three years were also the product of his fascinating mind and that the project now has ended. The idea for Who Killed Mickey, which progressively grew over the period of the last years, came up in order for Honarvar to have an output where he could use all his leftover scraps from his regular work, but also to create collages just for the fun of it. These prerequisites translated into some of Honarvar's most bold work, using familiar images from the fashion industry and pop culture combined with pornography and anatomical images, without a clear overall concept to be observed, but with his incredible signature aesthetic written all over it. [ Continue reading ]

Since his graduation in 2007 artist Ashkan Honarvar has been making a name for himself with his utmost fascinating collages in which he focuses on the dark side of humanity. Themes like colonialism, war, mass destruction, megalomania and other grotesque behavior are all observable in his progressively growing body of work. We particularly love his series of this year; 'Conquest 5' and 'Identity Lost' which was released in 2013. The series examine different visual languages, out of which the new images are created, but the results are equally haunting and show beauty in the most macabre images, exemplifying the enormous talent of Honarvar. [ Continue reading ]

The Bonsai Project was a beautiful collaboration between Dutch documentary photographers Sjoerd Knibbeler and Rob Wetzer. They started the project in 2009 out of fascination for the experience of nature and the cultivation of our natural environment and wrapped it up in 2013. Bonsai, man-made trees cultivated in pots, has been a Chinese tradition for more than two thousand years. Since then, it developed into an art form and has spread over the world. Many enthusiasts all over the world make and keep bonsai. Really understanding bonsai involves closely observing one’s natural environment and using it as inspiration. As photographers Knibbeler and Wetzer were fascinated by the condensed experience of nature these magical trees offer. Bonsai can be seen as the most unnatural nature that exists, cultivated for mere beauty, Knibbeler and Wetzer searched for a deeper understanding of what cultivating nature can offer us: a sense of time, respect, reflection and care for things around us. On a very small scale, this happens within the bonsai culture. But it happens in many different ways, everywhere in the world. [ Continue reading ]