Gallery Albada Jelgersma is pleased to invite you to the opening of CONCEAL / REVEAL, a group exhibition with recent work by Rob Johannesma, Nori Pao and Misha de Ridder. The exhibition opens on Saturday June 29 from 5 to 7 pm and runs through July 27.
Different as their work may seem, the three artists have in common that they cover or conceal their subject in their own way in order to tap into deeper layers and express the transcendent.
Rob Johannesma (NL) collects all kinds of images and has since built up an entire archive in his studio, from which he draws. From photographs of world news from newspapers, iconic images from history books, to interiors from design magazines, which he appropriates in all sorts of ways; in the works shown by painting over it. It covers essential parts and makes unnoticed details recognizable. This creates mini theaters with wings and imaginary empty spaces between the different parts within an image. In this way he raises the question of what those images are and what meaning (s) these images evoke.
Nori Pao (VS) brings two videos and a ceramic work. The videos, which are actually an animation with endless photos, work with human interventions in nature. By disguising them, and that in a literal sense with clay, the imperishable nature of nature, stones in this case, becomes clear and thus how nature transcends the here and now. Nature stands still as time goes by. Pao also shows a series of “day drawings”, which she made in the EKWC in Oisterwijk, where she currently resides. These day drawings are the result of a project she started in 2000 with the creation of a daily drawing that she presents per month. While the format of the “day drawings” remains consistent throughout the project, the medium, concept and process of creating each “drawing” changes over time. Taken together, they offer a look at recent history from one perspective.
Misha de Ridder (NL) uses the camera to look at reality better and differently. For him, looking is a process of becoming aware, getting close to the mystery of what surrounds us, of which we are part. Concentrated research into light, color and matter are leading in the creation of his image, resulting in extremely precise compositions, which are very open in their meaning. This can be clearly seen in the works in this exhibition, work from two recent projects: 'Falaise' and 'high up close by'. In 'Falaise' it is abstractions of chalk cliffs in Normandy, the constant metamorphosis of the rock surface, the reflections of light and color on the sea in which our eye continues to wander. In the work from 'high up close by', of which a recent publication has appeared, it is the plastered walls of the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam where the Dutch light that enters through the high windows reveals the transcendent aspects of a centuries-old organic structure, created by the touch of many hands.
