Slow → Search results for ‘Ravestijn Gallery’

The Situation Room

Last Saturday, one of our favorite Amsterdam-based galleries; The Ravestijn Gallery, opened a new show by Dutch collage artist Ruth van Beek named 'The Situation Room', which we feel ends a very interesting year of exhibitions, following other favorite shows by Vincent Fournier and Robin de Puy. The work of van Beek originates in her ever-growing archive. The images, mainly from old photo books, are her tools, source material and context. By folding, cutting, or adding pieces of painted paper, she rearranges and manipulates the image until her interventions reveal the universe that lay within them.

With her imagery, van Beek triggers the imagination of the viewer: passive human hands are animated, objects turn into characters, and abstract shapes come to life. The original image may have been taken out of context, but the familiar imagery –the formal photography of an instruction book, a clearly displayed object, or a staged action– remains recognizable, and thus speaks to our collective memory. Contrasting elements engage in conversation in van Beek’s work: the dead past coming to life; the literal and the abstract; displaying and concealing expressively; both the limitation and the endless possibility of an archive. Hereby, van Beek joins a new generation of artists that, by finding restriction in closed archives, offer a counterweight to the limitless availability of information. The constant organization of the world around her even gets a literal representation in van Beek’s work: the rearranging hands of instruction books appear and reappear, like a self-portrait of the artist as a creator. [ Continue reading ]

Brasília

Vincent Fournier at The Ravestijn Gallery

Two weeks ago a new show by the very talented Vincent Fournier named 'Brasília' opened in one our favorites of Amsterdam: The Ravestijn Gallery. After his super inspirational series 'Post Natural History' was on display in Amsterdam in 2014, the French photographic artist returns with a series taken from a totally different perspective and taken in a dissimilar arena. As the name of the exhibition suggest, the series focusses on the Brazilian capital Brasília, which is a one of a kind city composed of reinforced concrete, a paragon of the tenets of modernist architecture and city planning. Enfolded by the artificial Paranoá Lake, the city fashions a curious structural plane; a grid-like formula of post- war modernism arranged into a light curve. Brasília was constructed in the late 50’s from scratch according to the blueprints by the urban planner Lucío Costa, landscape designer Roberto Burle Marx and the architect Oscar Niemeyer. The three designers proposed a set of speculative opportunities for the future of architectural utopia; future, that some sixty years later has lost itself somewhere in the murky water between the past and present. A far cry from the buzzing city streets of Rio and São Paulo, Brasília is a plateau mostly of purpose-built bureaucratic and governmental settings. The austerity of modernist architecture lends itself to Vincent Fournier’s photography series that bear the name of the concrete capital. The result is a aesthetically captivating, perfectly stylized and emotionally haunting series, feeling like stills from a David Lynch film, showing the artificial city from a remarkably constructed perspective. Make sure to see it when in Amsterdam before the 28th of May! [ Continue reading ]

If this is true… 8,000 Miles on a Motorcycle in the USA

Robin de Puy at the Hague Museum of Photography

The very talented Dutch photographer Robin de Puy set off across the United States in May 2015 in search for peace of mind. Her most vital equipment was in her saddlebags: a couple of lamps, two cameras and a lighting umbrella. She followed no set route but toured the country looking for distinctive faces to photograph – people of all ages and both sexes whom she just happened to meet on her travels. She specifically did not want to record social contrasts or the antithesis between urban America and the country’s endless empty spaces. The result is an incredible series of portraits, reminding of Robert Frank and Richard Avedon, which will be presented by the Hague Museum of Photography in the photographer’s first ever solo show in a museum setting. The exhibition with the title 'If this is true… 8,000 Miles on a Motorcycle in the USA' will open for the public on the 19th of March. De Puy's remarkable talent and eye for detail is undisputed by now, but the American arena and setting clearly inspired the photographer to take some of her most compelling images till date. Don't miss this remarkble exhibition.  [ Continue reading ]

The Magic Tree

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 ]

Post Natural History by Vincent Fournier

We are very inspired by the latest project of French photographer Vincent Fournier named Post Natural History. The marvelous project is based on current research regarding synthetic biology and the reprogramming of stem cells and is being exhibited for the public now at The Ravestijn Gallery in Amsterdam. Since visiting the Palais de la Découverte in Paris as a young boy, Fournier has highly been fascinated by the wonders of the world; such as astronomy, space travel, geology, biology and physics which clearly shows in his work. [ Continue reading ]