Exhibitions

Artist's Proof
Solo exhibition FOAM 2018

Based on a true story
Solo exhibition gallery tegenboschvanvreden, Amsterdam
2015

Luceberthuis
2024
Open Studio
Artist in Residence

Oude Kerk - Once in a lifetime 2016
groupshow curated by Nina Folkersma

Two room installation

"La Mémoire Histoire" is an installation featuring an open, custom-made cabinet filled with both found and created objects. Designed to resemble a museum vitrine or a precious cabinet—where valuable artifacts are carefully displayed—this structure, however, remains partly open, allowing visitors to get closer or even touch the items.

Each object carries a sense of memory: locks removed from Parisian bridges once symbolizing love, glass negatives preserving the images of people who once existed, stacks of old postcards, an old Burberry coat and a cast of my own face. We tend to cherish objects from our past that hold personal significance. By arranging these seemingly ordinary items in a museum-like setting, I seek to highlight the fleeting nature of life and the ways we attach meaning to the things we leave behind.

"It Took Us Years to Get Here" is an installation featuring twelve pairs of old shoes, once worn by my friends. Each pair has been silver-plated and arranged across the floor of a historic room that once served as a wedding room in the church—where the painter Rembrandt signed his marriage certificate in 1634. Silver-plating is traditionally used to preserve a child's first pair of shoes, transforming them into lasting mementos. By applying this technique to the shoes of those I regularly spent time with, I have created a personal time capsule—capturing the memories and environment of that period. The shoes symbolize the passage of time, both physically, through the visible wear imprinted on them, and metaphorically, through the journeys they have taken.

Maison van Doesburg
Meudon, Fr

Coup de Foudre
A group exhibition curated by Danielle van Ark & Thomas Raat

with:
Danielle Van Ark, Karina Bisch, Martin Boyce, Gerbrand Burger, Valentin Carron, Wolfgan Messing, Anna Ostoya, Thomas Raat, Alan Reid, David Renggli, Wim T Schippers, Nicoline Timmer, Ola Vasiljeva, Marianne Vierø

The exhibition Coup De Foudre presents the work of an international group of artists in the context of one of the best known artists’ homes from the interbellum that is still in use as a studio-house. Theo van Doesburg designed it for himself and his wife Nelly towards the end of the 1920s, in Meudon-Val-Fleury, a suburb of Paris. The house was completed at the end of 1930. Even before it was furnished and the paintwork finished, Van Doesburg died, aged 47. After his early death, Nelly, Theo’s widow continued to live in Meudon for the rest of her life.

Currently we – Danielle van Ark and Thomas Raat – are ‘artist in residence’ at the Maison van Doesburg. Not long after we moved in we felt the need to challenge the somewhat rigid atmosphere of the house. We decided to organise an exhibition in the spirit of Nelly. Nelly had a big influence on the legacy of Theo van Doesburg. While living in Meudon she surrounded herself with the work of Theo and his contemporaries and her international contacts have played a significant role in promoting the avant-garde. For example, she advised Peggy Guggenheim building her collection.

Nelly immediately fell in love when she first met Theo van Doesburg and remarked “I think that’s what they call coup de foudre,” which is a french term for ‘falling in love’.

For us coup de foudre also served as a benchmark when selecting the artists for this exhibition.

It helped us to find direction and proved it was possible to get the exhibition together in a very short period of time.

Perhaps a curator would have worked differently, but we intentionally didn’t approach the exhibition from an art-historical or art-theoretical perspective. This exhibition is made by artists and we have chosen works with strong suggestive and visual impact. Coup De Foudre focuses on the transformation of the concept avant-garde within the context of a homely setting. With this exhibition we hope to shed an alternative light on the 100th anniversary of ‘De Stijl’, founded in 1917 in Leiden by Theo van Doesburg, exactly 100 years ago.

With this exhibition we want to emphasise the ‘human side’ of this unique studio house, which contrasts sharply with the compelling modernist structure of the house. The works of a large group of international artists are naturally integrated into daily life. In and around the house, the boundaries between ‘exhibiting art’ and ‘living with the art’ are challenged.

The presence of (dis) functional forms and (use) objects generates a poetic atmosphere adding a third aspect to the dubble function of the studio house, that of exhibition space.

A short period in time, not only for us as temporary residents, but also for the exhibited works to find an imaginary “home”.

I wait I wait I wait I wait
De Nederlandsche Bank, Amsterdam
Solo Exhibition
2017

Rijksakademie Open Studios
2013

For the open studios I've made an installation which was inspired by a period room. But unlike a period room which is mostly kept like a time capsule my space was nothing like it seemed. The carpet was made out of sand and swept up after the open studios. The walls were a big graffiti, painted over a week later and the artworks on the wall, a reproduction of a Rubens painting and a Picasso sculpture were enlarged press photo's worked on by the editiors of the newspaper who places these pictures at the time.

For the open studios, I made an installation inspired by the idea of a period room. But unlike traditional period rooms, which are preserved like time capsules, my space was intentionally deceptive. The carpet was made of sand and was swept away once the open studios ended. The gold walls was one large-scale graffiti, painted white again just a week later. The pictures on display—a reproduction of a Rubens painting and a Picasso sculpture—were enlarged vintage press photographs, visibly altered by the newspaper editors who originally published them.