PAST
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I’ll dance as fast as I can
Live Performance by LR On Demand
Rosa Agular – Barocoria
ELOY ARRIBAS
Antología de canciones / Anthology of Songs
(Curated by Gabriel Rolt for The Curators Room)
10 June 2023 – 30 June 2023
🥂Opening:
Saturday, 10th of June, 17 – 21. hrs
Location:
The Curators Room – East
Dapperplein 45
AMSTERDAM
–> To the exhibition
NOW
Barcelona
Nothing to Hide
Featuring work by Calli Moore, John Fou, Virginia Paradise, Adam Linn & Julia Kowalska
(Curated by Thom Oosterhof for The Curators Room)
18 May 2023 – 24 June 2023
🥂Opening:
Thursday, 18th of May at 18h
Location:
The Curators Room – La Oficina
Carrer de Trafalgar, 45
BARCELONA
PAST
Amsterdam
SHOE
UNMOVEMENT
(Curated by Gabriel Rolt for The Curators Room)
🥂 REVEAL OF SHOE’S NEW SCULPTURAL WORK: ‘1992 BUICK PARK AVENUE’
-> Thursday 11 May, 17 – 21 hrs
Location:
The Curators Room – Art Chapel Amsterdam
Prinses Irenestraat 19
AMSTERDAM
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Barcelona
Starshine
GIJS VAN LITH
(Curated by Gabriel Rolt for The Curators Room)
16th of March 2023 – 30th of April 2023
Location:
The Curators Room – La Oficina Barcelona
Carrer de Trafalgar, 45
BARCELONA
PAST
The Garden
Featuring work by Thomias L. Radin, Szaweł Płóciennik, Cesc Abad & Lera Dubitskaya
(Curated by Thom Oosterhof for The Curators Room)
03 February 2023 – 25 March 2023
🥂Opening:
Friday, 3rd of February at 18h
Performance by Thomias L. Radin at 19h
Location:
The Curators Room – Amsterdams Chapel
Prinses Irenestraat, 19
AMSTERDAM
The Curators Room – La Oficina Barcelona
Firestater
Featuring work by Miel Olise Kjærgaard, Jamie Gray Williams, Ronnie Robinson & Bobbi Essers
(Curated by Thom Oosterhof for The Curators Room)
12 January – 04 March 2023
🥂Opening reception:
Thursday, 12th of January , 18 – 20 hrs
Location:
The Curators Room – La Oficina Barcelona
Carrer de Trafalgar, 45
BARCELONA
PAST
UVNT ART FAIR 2023 MADRID
Artists:
Adam Štech
Zac Yeates
Cesc Abad
Juan Narowé
Location:
UVNT ART FAIR 2023
Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos Madrid
Calle Hortaleza 63
February 23th – 26th
The Curators Room is proud to announce the participation at UVNT ART FAIR 2023, where we will present works byZac Yeates, Adam Štech , Juan Narowé and Cesc Abad
Looking forward to see you there!
THE CURATORS ROOM – AMSTERDAM CHAPEL
Inaugural exhibition
’11+11=22’
FRANS FRANCISCUS
(Curated by Gabriel Rolt for The Curators Room)
11 November 2022 – 01 January 2023
Location:
The Curators Room – Amsterdam Chapel
Prinses Irenestraat, 19
AMSTERDAM
The Curators Room is pleased to present 11+11= 22 by Frans Franciscus, a solo exhibition curated by Gabriel Rolt dedicated to the oeuvre of the Dutch painter whose career has been centered on reconfiguring canonical structures present throughout the history of European painting. Working in a classical tradition of portraiture and landscape, the artist continues in this legacy through figurative works that span both flatwork and ceramic sculptures. His body of work concerns biblical references which he reimagines often with an autobiographical flair.
This show helps bring into the world and inaugurate the new temporary exhibition space, The Curators Room – Amsterdam Chapel, which dialogues with The Curators Room – La Oficina, the only permanent space of the project which opened in Barcelona last April. Franciscus’ show will be held in the new temporary space from the 11th of November to the 1st of January 2023 and serves as a loose anthology of his work in the past 20 years. It suggests a curious chronology given that the artist almost entirely stopped painting 6 years ago in favor of an unexpected shift of focus from painting to clay. Only in the last year has the artist reconciled with his painting practice.
THE CURATORS ROOM – MOYA
MOYA (museum of young art) Oosterhout, adopted The Curators Room for the upcoming months. We will open with two exhibitions: ‘Most Normal’ , a solo show by Amsterdam Based artist Bas Geerts together the group exhibition ‘Wat voel je nou’ with works by Daria Birang, Juan Narowé, Lisette Ros, Javier Ruiz Perez, Paul du Bois-Reymond, Bas Geerts, Cesc Abad, Freddy Tratlehner, Nathaniel Bolarinwa, Eduardo Millan and Jose Bonell. This school-reunion -like exhibition marks a few highlights of The Curators Room ‘s presentations since our very first exhibition a year ago. We are very excited about this new cooperation. Stay tuned! Hand in hand with the exhibition, there is a program full with performance, music and food in the works.
Opening Reception:
Saturday 12 November, 15 – 17 hrs
Location:
MOYA – MUSEUM OF YOUNG ART
Wilhelminakanaal Zuid 104, 4903 RA Oosterhout, The Netherlands
https://moya.museum/
‘Wat voel je nou’
Group show
Daria Birang, Juan Narowé, Lisette Ros, Javier Ruiz Perez, Paul du Bois-Reymond, Bas Geerts, Cesc Abad, Freddy Tratlehner, Nathaniel Bolarinwa, Eduardo Millan and Jose Bonell.
‘Most Normal’
BAS GEERTS
(Curated by Gabriel Rolt)
The Curators Room – MOYA is proud to announce Most Normal, a solo exhibition by Amsterdam based artist Bas Geerts.
The question at the core of Bas Geerts‘ practice is the timeless discourse on mimesis: how to represent reality. What interests him the most is however not the actual material world, but the digital one (even if one could ask whether such a distinction can be truly made, nowadays). His works serve as a possible way of translating the digital realm, ubiquitous and contemporary filter of our life, onto a concrete and tangible surface. To do so, Geerts employs precisely what today’s technology has to offer: digital instruments. During the years, he developed a computer program able to transform technological algorithms into organic designs, shapes and forms of unpredictable format.
PAST
The Curators Room – La Oficina Barcelona
LULLABIES
Eloy Arribas
Fabrizio Cotognini
Laura Hermanides
Jan Monclus
Curated by Manuela Pereira and Gabriel Rolt
16 November 2022 – 16 January 2023
LOCATION:
The Curators Room – La Oficina Barcelona
Carrer de Trafalgar 45
08010 Barcelona
Spain
Open:
Tue – Fri: 16 – 20 hrs
Sat: 11 – 14 hrs
Www.Thecuratorsroom.com
hola@thecuratorsroom.com
LOOP fair 2022
Laura Hermanides – ‘Anahit’
Barcelona
15 -17 November
Room #312
LAURA HERMANIDES
ANAHIT
The Curators room is delighted to announce the participation at Loop Barcelona 2022 with the international art world’s premiere of ‘Anahit’, a new video work by Dutch filmmaker Laura Hermanides, curated by Gabriel Rolt.
Imaani, a victim of sexual violence, relives a post-traumatic episode when she enters a swimming pool, where vulnerability and fear are expressed through a delicate and magnificent body language. The water goddess of fertility, wisdom and healing, Anahit, encourages her to use dance as a tool for the reappropriation of her body. Movement takes a central role in the therapeutic process. Breathing sets the rhythm of alertness, through short but deep breaths of air traveling back, little by little, to the young woman’s memory.
The process of fighting against her own demons leads Imaani to a physical exhaustion that she will only resolve by shouting at her inner noise. The element of water, present attribute of the deity, accompanies her as the natural force of life. Reliving the event with impetuous courage she faces the predator, becoming the owner of her being, devouring it. Her calm is finally restored and she retakes her place within the group, melting her inner hostility into power.
Hermanides manages to build an emotional bridge between the audience and the protagonist, transgressing her emotions and impacting those of the spectator. She firmly portrays her triumph facing the enemy.
Text by Manuela Pereira
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Barcelona
ZAC YEATES
‘Just Another Day’
Extended until 5 November 2022
LOCATION:
The Curators Room – La Oficina Barcelona
Carrer de Trafalgar 45
08010 Barcelona
Spain
OPEN:
Tuesday – Friday: 16:00 hrs – 20:00 hrs
Saturday: 11:00 hrs – 14:00 hrs
www.Thecuratorsroom.com
hola@thecuratorsroom.com
Zac Yeates,
Leg and Arm Chair
Oil pastel, acrylic and gouache on canvas,
110 x 90 cm
2022
PAST
Amsterdam
CESC ABAD
T’ESTAVA ESPERANT / I WAS WAITING FOR YOU
(Curated by Gabriel Rolt)
03 September – 30 September
Opening reception:
Saturday 03 September 17 – 21 hrs
Prinsengracht 675
1017 JT Amsterdam
The Netherlands
PAST
Amsterdam
DING-A-DONG
Artists:
Juan Narowé, José Bonell, Vincent van de Waal, Grgur Akrap, Dick Tuinder, Nathaniel Bolarinwa, Andrew Kayser, Javier Ruiz Perez, Erkut Terliksiz, Paul du Bois-Reymond, Lisette Ros, Patricia Paludanus, David KC Moir, Nathaniel Bolarinwa, Freddy Tratlehner , Rae Klein, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Eduardo Millan, Shoe, Goya
23 JUNE – 14 AUGUST
Location:
The Curators Room
Prinsengracht 675
1017JT AmsterdamA
The Netherlands
Open:
Thursday – Saturday: 13 – 17 hrs
.
Barcelona
NO ESTAMOS SOLOS / We are not alone
(curated by Javier Ruiz Pérez and Gabriel Rolt)
Artists:
Juan Narowé, José Bonell, Vincent van de Waal, Frans Franciscus, Laura López Balza, Mercedes Pimiento and cymoonv
3 JUNE – 14 AUGUST
PAST
‘VISTA AEREA DE LA LIBERTAD HUMANA’
(Aerial view of the human freedom)
JAVIER RUIZ PEREZ
Curated by Gabriel Rolt
08 MAY – 10 JUNE
Opening reception: Sunday 08 May, 17 – 21 hrs
Location:
The Curators Room Oosterpark / Atelier Artplaats
Mauritskade 55C, 1092 AD Amsterdam, The Netherland
Open: Friday – Sunday, 13 to 17 hrs
–> CLICK HERE TO GO THE EXHIBITION
Past:
BARCELONA
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| LIGHT IN THE FOG NIK CHRISTENSEN (Curated by Gabriel Rolt) 06 April – 21 May 2022 Opening reception: 06 April, 18 – 21 hrs Location: The Curators Room – La Oficina Barcelona Carrer de Trafalgar 45, 08010 Barcelona –> CLICK HERE TO GO THE EXHIBITION |
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*Click Here for the Installation Shots
AMSTERDAM
Current
TODO ES DE COLOR
(Curated by Gabriel Rolt)
5 March – 24 April 2021
** Installation views
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Artists:
Rae Klein, Nik Christensen, Nahaniel Bolarinwa, Andrew Kayser, Javier Ruiz, Sara Bonache, Juan Narowé, Marc Badia and Jose Bonell
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Location:
Prinsengracht 675, 1017 JT Amsterdam. The Netherlands
www.thecuratorsroom.com | hello@thecuratorsroom.com | +31(0) 625005374
Open:
Thursday – Saturday
13 – 17 hrs or by appointment
| RAE KLEIN |
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| Rae Klein, Can’t Help Myself , Oil on linen, 30,5 x 35,6 cm, 2022 |
| Rae Klein is best known for her oil paintings. A principle theme in her work is tense, off situations. Through painting, she explores where the line is when events cross from in, to out of one’s control. Subtle emotions from the realization that one is becoming powerless translate into visual detail.She graduated in 2017 with a BFA in Painting from Eastern Michigan University. She continues to paint and live in Michigan. |
| NIK CHRISTENSEN |
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| Nik Christensen, Float Around With the Ghost Until You Hear the Echo, Acrylics and Sumi ink on Duck canvas, 50 x 40 cm, 2021 |
| After working almost exclusively with Sumi ink on paper for over a decade, Christensen was keen on switching things but didn’t want to lose the part where part of the process is beyond his control. Eventually, he developed a technique through which the canvas surface responds to acrylic and inks in the similar way that paper absorbs and influences the shapes and intensity of the ink and stepped away from often landscape-based representational images towards abstracted figure-based compositions With this new approach Nik Christensen is combining various types of brushwork alongside a pretty uncommon way of using the airbrush. Appearing somewhat more exact and calculated than his previous inks on paper, there is still a lot of freedom and elements of surprise in the new way his new works are constructed. Leaving the marks of the process visible and contrasting the rigid patterns against loose lines and fundamentally unfinished sections, he is creating a sense of dynamics and movement similar to the ones seen in manga cartoons. Working with references from Ukiyo prints as well as traditional Japanese theatre, Kabuki, he is deconstructing the original elements and reassembling them into evocative amalgamations of forms, patterns, strokes, marks, and much-appreciated technical or chemical accidents- Text by Sasha Bogojev |
| NATHANIEL BOLARINWA |
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| Nathaniel Bolarinwa, Bad man on Dior, Acrylics on canvas, 91 x 61 cm, 2022Nathaniel Bolarinwa(born in 1998 in the city of Lagos, Nigeria )Nathaniel’s Work is an embodiment of botanical surrealism through which he communicates a metaphorical concept of reincarnation of the soul and afterlife, represented in human gestures of both gender which features the bark of tree, trunk, leaves and a bulge eyes. His works are majorly adorned by a beautifully dressed figures in vibrant colorsUpon finishing his national diploma in general art, Nathaniel then proceeded to the universal studios of Art where he was trained under the mentorship of prominent Nigerian Artists. Nathaniel Bolarinwa as exhibited in the Nu-African art exhibition curated by the TAAG gallery NY explored on ARTSY alongside with other African artists oct 2021. |
| ANDREW KAYSER |
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| Andrew Kayser, Daydreaming, Oil on canvas, 110 x 140 cm, 2022 |
| Andrew KayserUsing oil paint as the primary medium and the suburban landscape as a departure point, the paintings suggest a collision of inner and outer realities, an impression that meaning is fleeting and intimately personal.By focussing on themes of doubt, ambiguity, and contradiction, all interpretations are welcome, necessary, to create an almost cinematic suspense, an awareness that something is about to happen, or has just happened.In acknowledging that the world is not something to be known and understood, but rather to be seen and queried, the artist strives to create works that are poignant, melancholic, and beautiful.Andrew Kayser (b. 1975, South Africa) is a contemporary artist living and working in Johannesburg, South Africa. He graduated from the Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten (Royal Academy of Art), Den Haag, Netherlands in 2001. |
| JAVIER RUIZ |
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| Javier Ruiz, Se volvió a hacer de noche mientras dormíamos II, Oil on canvas, 30 x 40 cm, 2021Javier Ruiz Perez (La Carolina, Jaén, Spain, 1989)’ paintings are collage-like compositions consisting of visual footage collected from social media and the internet. The depicted subjects are always living figures, a group of people or single individuals, against a background of Andalusian landscapes. The medium employed is oil paint on canvas and paper, applied quickly, wet on wet, a technique that confers a sense of urgency and immediacy to the works. This intuitive conviction that appears to guide Perez’s making process stems from the nature of his subject matter: the obvious of the real. His paintings always manage to deliver an uncanny balance between credibility and oddity, resulting in depictions that are incomprehensible, yet plausible.Javier Ruiz Perez (Jaén, 1989) graduated from the Escuela de arte 10 in Madrid and the Pasadena Art Center in Los Angeles in 2013. His work is part of important private and museum collections including Museum Voorlinden , NL and MEAM (museum of European Art Barcelona), ES. Ruiz Perez lives and works in Amsterdam, The Netherlands |
| SARA BONACHE |
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| Sara Bonache, Untitled, Pastel on paper, 61 x 46 cm, 2021SARA BONACHE (Barcelona, Spain)Bonache’s practice explores the relationship between the human body and nature by dissolving the boundaries between these two iconographies, seeking new forms through metamorphosis and metaphor. Known and unknown shapes intertwine, constantly playing with each other and subverting existing meanings. At this exchange, one image hides another.The body and the care, the spiritual and the earthly. Hallucinatory or magical plants, where the limit of the form is diluted to give way to analogy. Medicine and magic transmute in a chimeric and scientific imagery at the same time, as a way to explore our relationship to the natural world, our bodies and their life cycles.Recent works explore the natural world in different ways. Bonache’s interest lies in the relationship between plants, magical thinking, herbalism, body and rituals. Particularly, rituals an knowledge associated with women, in order to find new ways to represent the plant world and mits possibilities of transformation and metamorphosis.Sara Bonache employs techniques such as drawing, painting and textile to reflect on its current use as a way to create new images linked to experience. On the other hand, her work represents the lushness of nature and its transformation through shape, color and materials. Interior and exterior, illusion and reality converge in a single space where pastel technique brings her closer to the sensory and tactile aspects of the materials |
| JUAN NAROWE |
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| Juan Narowé, La duda, Acrylic on canvas 270 x 210 cm, 2021Juan NarowéInspired by different artistic disciplines, from literature to cinema, Juan Narowé works across different media in ever changing paintings that oscillate between old and new. Often adding or erasing layers to his works, taking already existing fragments and modifying them, Narowé creates material palimpsests: the trace encounters the new, in an interplay of timeframes. The formal language of the works is simple, almost childish, pure in intention and style. The naivity of the subjects, portrayed while walking or simply sitting, is sweet: there is a sense of intimacy to the protagonists, as if the artists is able to enter their private thoughts and dreams and deliver them onto linen or paper. The density of the paint and the thickness of the line make the contrast surface-drawing even stronger, enforcing this sense of closeness between the viewer and the subject matter. Juan Narowé (Brazil, 1993) is an artist based in Barcelona. His work ranges from drawing and painting to graphic art, digital art, books and other media. |
| MARC BADIA |
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| Marc Badia, Congratulations asshole II, oil on linen, 92 x 73 cm, 2021MARC BADIA Marc Badia (Barcelona, Spain) takes as a starting point the connections established between the history of traditional painting and contemporary aesthetics and then transfers them to the decoding of the current image. By means of a manifest dysfunction very much directed at the language of the internet (memes, gifs, etc.), his works promote the absurd as a system of social criticism and, at the same time, as a personal refuge from which to approach his practice. |
| JOSE BONELL |
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| Jose Bonell, Liège – Rheinpfalz, Oil and spray on canvas, 180 x 210 cm, 2021JOSE BONELLBarcelona, 1989 Bonell’s paintings are stories never told, imaginary tales of absurd or fantastic nature that delve into the possibility of the ‘what if’. True mise-en-scène, the depicted scenes suggest literary references, distant memories or occurrences that take place within a common environment such as organized interiors or specific landscapes. Actual tableaux vivants, absurd scenes develop in front of our eyes, featuring common objects and characters that bypass the apparent non-sense and delve into the realm of the possibility: some doors are looking for their respective keys to open itself, some gym benches are howling at the moon like wolfs, or sometimes, they try to imagine what Mae West’s living room might have looked like or the exact moment when Cinderella is called by the fairy to go to the party. In his paintings, Bonell takes the role of the storyteller, the narrator that without having the certainty of where the brush will take him navigates between the narrative and the humorous, the fantastic and the ordinary, reflection and anecdote. |
Past
1905 x 925 x 120 mm, Unique
FULL STOP
LUCAS LENGLET
26 March – 24 April 2022
Opening reception: 26 March, 16 -20 hrs
Location:
The Curators Room Oosterpark / Atelier Artplaats
Mauritskade 55C, 1092 AD Amsterdam, The Netherlands
The Curators Room is proud to announce FULL STOP, a solo show by Lucas Lenglet in collaboration with Stigter van Doesburg and Atelier Artplaats.
SATISFACTORY
PAUL DU BOIS-REYMOND
Until 6 March
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Installation views
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Location:
The Curators Room Oosterpark / Atelier Artplaats
Mauritskade 55C, 1092 AD Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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Open:
Thursday – Saturday, 13 – 18 hrs
(And by appointment)
The Curators Room is proud to announce SATISFACTORY, a solo show by Paul du Bois-Reymond curated by Gabriel Rolt.
Paul du Bois-Reymond’s paintings are landscapes of surreal pleasure. Always departing from a digital source, being it found footage on the internet or snippets of iPhone pictures, the paintings translate bidimensional images into tridimensional environments, populated by artificial objects. Often associated with the luxury world, the depicted items are transposed from the digital to the physical through oil pastel and paint; flat images become objects again, only this time twisted, enhanced, elevated into something different.
The representational transition of the objects from digital surface to pictorial matter seems to alter their entity: the black glazed ceramic of a simple ashtray suddenly appears oddly attractive; round and lushy pearls of piercing brightness capture the eye, floating around in an expansive world made of marble, where symbols of luxury triumph in their allure: Majestic, unreachable.
Cold objects move in a surreal landscape, distant in their perfection, yet sometimes strangely familiar. Flashes of intimacy, fragments of the artist’s personal life appear in this setting too: a corner of his house, a picture of a familiar place. And then, juxtaposed to this scenery, the fleshy pink of a lipstick becomes all of a sudden satisfying to look at, the object itself incredibly desirable: you want to touch it, own it. Expensive ordinary objects are celebrated here, their status as symbols of consumerism now glorified, in a process of sharp, almost pop arrogance that questions their blatant appeal: Why are these objects so attractive? why do we desire them? does their exclusiveness influence their beauty?
By deconstructing snippets of reality and reconstructing them onto the canvas in a neo-cubistic manner, du Bois-Reymond prompts us to re-think the relationship digital/ physical,
transforming flat images into palpable objects: enhancing their formal quality with the thickness of the oil pastel increases their allure, their creamy surface and exaggerated colors suddenly sensual, inviting.
The ironic look at these surreal symbols of contemporary desire are framed by the artist in an intelligent manner, in an attempt to disclose hidden mechanisms of our aesthetics in the most transparent way possible: through pleasure.
Paul du Bois-Reymond (Amsterdam / Berlin) is an artist, musician and designer who lives and works in Amsterdam.
He studied at the Rietveld Academy of the arts (1992-1996) and was co-founder of the infamous DEPT, later Machine design collectives. In 2018 he co-founded the Amsterdam based band OWN.
Recent (solo) exhibitions include: het HEM, Zaandam, Shallow Then Halo, The Curators Room, YWGWYW with The Curators Room; Droste Gallery, Germany ; Kunsthaus Betanien, Germany, Gabriel Rolt Gallery, The Netherlands and Unruly Gallery, The Netherlands.
-Text by Sara van Bussel
The Curators Room Oosterpark is a cooperation between Atelier Artplaats and The Curators Room located at the Mauritskade 55C in Amsterdam.
About Atelier Artplaats:
Atelier Artplaats is a young Amsterdam art platform with a focus on the stories behind artworks and their creators. Since 2021 Atelier Artplaats has a temporary exhibition space located in Amsterdam East, where the space is also offered to other creatives and initiatives. Soon the webshop will go online, where you can find quality art with context and real stories.
About The Curators Room
The Curators Room is a living, breathing ecosystem. Continuously developing and moulding into something new – each exhibition, each performance, each space, online and offline. Committed to encourage conversations, challenging and questioning the boundaries of art, visioning the art world-to-come. A constantly evolving community with many different voices. Inter-generational, cross-disciplinary. Where artists, curators, thinkers, art lovers and collectors act and grow together.
50 x 40 cm, 2022
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Past Exhibitions
NEEDLES IN THE HAY
(Curated by Sasha Bogojev for The Curators Room)
Until 19 February 2022
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Artists:
Grgur Akrap, Zac Yeates, Anna Jung Seo, Chiaki Kadota, Donglai Meng, Joseph Noderer, Eskubi Joseba, Erkut Terliksiz, Stijn Bastianen, Harry Rothel, Adam Štech, Andrea Medjesi-Jones, Yonel Watene, and Frank Jimin Hopp.
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Installation views
Press:
Needles in the Hay at Juxtapozz
Needles in the Hay at Artplugged
Needles in the Hay at Supersonic Art
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Location:
Prinsengracht 675, 1017 JT Amsterdam. The Netherlands
www.thecuratorsroom.com | hello@thecuratorsroom.com | +31(0) 625005374
Open:
Thursday – Saturday
13 – 17 hrs or by appointment
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The Curators Room is proud to Announce Needles in the Hay, a group show curated by Sasha Bogojev.
One of the things we’ve become more aware of in the past two years of the global pandemic is the unforgiving power of odds. No matter how small and insignificant a certain probability might be, recent times taught us that its mere existence is predestined to make an impact on the elements connected to it. And it’s this concept of chances and the related idea of risk and hope, as well as the general sense of liability, that prompted Sasha Bogojev to put together an exhibition where numbers work to our advantage.
As much as social media, namely Instagram, might have contributed to the democratization of the art world and have provided a historically unseen platform to creatives to introduce their work, the abundance of content makes this experience increasingly harder. With the growing interference and influence of both genuine and wannabe art advisors, collectors, curators, galleries, foundations, or institutions, the haystack we’re working through is becoming exponentially more convoluted and deceiving. And while this situation can be difficult for art aficionados and collectors, it can certainly turn frustrating for the artists themselves.
Overlooked by the almighty tastemakers or generally misrepresented, they are still out there, in the shadow of the mesmerizing spotlight of art trends, making the work that deserves more attention than it might be currently getting. And with this show, Sasha Bogojev and Gabriel Rolt from Amsterdam’s The Curators Room are doing their part to make the difference, find these gems hidden in plain sight and present their works in a large two-floor, multi-room space in the historic center of Amsterdam.
With an extensive overview of numerous studio practices and the positioning of people working there, Juxtapoz magazine’s contributing editor eye-picked a selection of international artists whose works deserve their own time in the spotlight. Whether looking at the general concepts of their practice, the particularities of their process, or their ways of handling and utilizing the chosen techniques or mediums, Needles in the Hay are having an important role in the ongoing development and conversation about figurative art, and especially painting. Frequently focusing on the atmosphere suggested by chosen colors and the sense of dynamics or movement conveyed through the often fluid yet determined paint manipulation, the work is having its footing in historic timeline with references to Surrealism, Cubism, Fauvism, Surrealism, as well as outsiders art, illustration, and abstraction. Hailing from all over the world, from New Zealand, over Australia, Japan, China, South Korea, to the USA, and across Europe and the UK, the exhibition is meant to provide a focused digest of exciting practices taking place at (mostly painters’) studios at the present time.
The exhibition will be including a selection of works by Grgur Akrap, Zac Yeates, Anna Jung Seo, Chiaki Kadota, Donglai Meng, Joseph Noderer, Eskubi Joseba, Erkut Terliksiz, Stijn Bastianen, Harry Rothel, Adam Štech, Andrea Medjesi-Jones, Yonel Watene, and Frank Jimin Hopp.
- Text by Sasha Bogojev
175 x 220 cm, 2021 (diptych)
Past:
SHALLOW THEN HALO
(Curated by Gabriel Rolt)
Until 04 December 2021
Location:
Prinsengracht 675, 1017 JT Amsterdam. The Netherlands
www.thecuratorsroom.com | Gabriel@thecuratorsroom.com | +31(0) 625005374
Open:
Thursday – Saturday
13 – 18 hrs or by appointment
Artists:
Daniëlle van Ark (NL), Adam Broomberg and Isaac Schaal (SA), Paul du Bois-Reymond (NL/DE), Daria Birang (US/NL), Giuseppe Buzzotta (IT), Jake and Dinos Chapman (UK), Nik Christensen (NL/UK), Aukje Dekker (NL). Bas Geerts (NL), Martin Kanja (KEN) , Eduardo Millan (ES), Andrea Orejarena (CO), Lisette Ros (NL), Javier Ruiz Perez (ES), Caleb Stein (UK/US), Shoe (NL) , Freddy Tratlehner (NL) and Vincent van de Waal (NL)
* Special guests: Joseph Abraham Doneus (Surinam, c. 1825 – after 1878) and
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (Spain, 1764-1828)