Albada Jelgersma Gallery is pleased to present the exhibition The figure in the carpet, with works on paper by Mathieu Cherkit, Arjan van Helmond and Marenne Welten. The exhibition opens Friday, June 15 from 6 to 8 pm and continues through July 27.
The figure in the carpet is the title of a short story by Henry James from 1896 in which “the figure” becomes a metaphor for discovering the secret meaning or intention of an author’s work. In our context it evokes the image of particular places that call for our attention. What does a place do to us throughout its history and
the time we spend there? All three artists are in some way concerned with what certain places do with us, and how this can be made present or tangible in their work. Mathieu Cherkit works with places in the home of his grandparents where
he now lives. Arjan van Helmond is looking for ordinary places that we run into daily and may not notice because of their commonness. Marenne Welten works in series, each time researching the history of a specific place.
In her gouaches Marenne Welten (1959) creates emotionally charged scenes with figures that belong to a place and at the same time do not seem to fit in. They are awkward and sometimes self-conscious.
Mathieu Cherkit (1982), who has shown before at the gallery, works from his home and with everything he encounters around him. That makes his work highly personal. For The figure in the carpet he has produced a series of oil pastels on paper.
Arjan van Helmond (1971) paints ordinary spaces and objects, and by giving them his full attention, he puts them in a different perspective. His work is fragmented, by the use of various angles of the object and by the use of different sheets of paper. In this exhibition multiple floors are on view.
