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24/11/2006

Two exhibitions

Galerie Fons Welters, Amsterdam

Amalia Pica
"Playstation" - Si no estas tu

The air of summer evoked by a South American bar such as those familiar in Europe, with brightly-coloured lamps on a wanton streamer dangling in front of the door or draped around the terrace, entices unsuspecting passers-by into Galerie Fons Welters. The Argentinean artist Amalia Pica (Neuquan,1978) is well aware of the symbols associated with the European 'South American feeling'.
Once inside, visitors are disconcerted by the failure to fulfil the promise made outside. From the ceiling hangs the rest of the streamer, but it is colourless, as a preliminary draft of what is outside. And although the Playstation floor is covered with a variety of beer-mats - the signs of a bar, but less sensual than expected, more the standard Dutch kind - there is nothing to drink. The mats are arranged in wonderful patterns, like a mosaic in a palace or a mosque. On the wall is a framed place-mat with a picture by Pieter Breughel that is often found in pancake houses, with the remains of a meal. The foreshadowed gathering is over; or is it still to come?
A small slide-show in a corner of the Playstation space depicts a boy walking over the snow. One step at a time, with the aid of a bucket, he is sculpting a figure. The last slide projects the image of a tropical island shaped in the snow; the bucket has become a coconut. The desire for precisely what is absent comes into focus: a nostalgia for the future.
On the wall hang sheets of paper covered with groups of two or more overlapping coloured circles - known in mathematics as Venn diagrams. These diagrams can be used to visualise the characteristics of different groups or communities; the overlaps reflect features that they have in common. A Venn diagram is an abstract image, one of many models used to clarify the dynamics and relationships between groups. The circles have enormous appeal - the yearning to belong to a community lies within us all. But they also repel, arousing fear and a sense of oppression. Belonging to a community can have a blinding effect - circles can only be seen as such from the outside.
Faintly audible within the exhibition space, as from a great distance, visitors hear the festive strains of a song: 'Si no estаs tu' (When you are not here). When you are not here / only your remains are visible. / When you are not here / I am incomplete. / When you are not here / I am alone and long for when you were here or for your return. / When you are not here, it means: / I, I am here.
Laura van Grinsven


Ge -Karel van der Sterren

Galerie Fons Welters presents a solo exhibition of work by Ge-Karel van der Sterren - his fourth in this gallery.
Once again Ge-Karel van der Sterren surprises us with a strange world that is both alienating and familiar at the same time. Behind arches of exotic flowers lie urban scenes dominated by strong colours and curious figures. A deep-red bridge pulls our gaze towards a sun-yellow tower rising from a soft-pink cloud. On the way we pass frivolous dancers who are diving elegantly into the water. Van der Sterren's 'jolly jumpers' represent a concentrated moment in time. The leap is the moment of rapt attention for artist and viewer alike, just as the here and now receives absolute attention in Van der Sterren's painted world.
At Galerie Fons Welters, Ge-Karel van der Sterren is exhibiting a group of new paintings given the collective title Point of View. For many years now, Van der Sterren has been engaged in a wholly individual renewal of painting, without losing sight of tradition. His work is known for its immense colourfulness and an impasto, almost sculptural style of painting. Large areas of colour, applied thinly in watery acrylic paint, alternate with details painted with greater precision in oil paint, which suggest the beginnings of a narrative. In many of the works exhibited here, the artist has continued his exploration of nuances in colour contrasts, as pursued at his last solo exhibition at Galerie Fons Welters (Skinnydipping, 2004). Van der Sterren's choice of subtle hues or more familiar colours is always highly deliberate, such that in certain parts of a painting he works primarily within a single colour. In this way, his colours sparkle and shine, taking on the leading role in his virtuoso painterly spectacle.
Ge-Karel van der Sterren's work is also characterised by an ambivalent interaction with the viewer, who is pulled back and forth between the images of frequently overwhelming size and colourfulness, and the image, the subject. His frivolous mode of painting is combined with perplexing subjects: reflecting diving goggles, white suits, withered plants, a dilapidated hut, traffic lights with the 'wrong' colours. Nothing, it seems, is what we think we see. Above all, in his choice of familiar, 'everyday', subjects, Ge-Karel van der Sterren, records a particular moment in time, an ancient feature of painting.
Van der Sterren's images are invitations or openings to look. His painterly qualities, his exuberant, original use of colour and baffling subjects challenge viewers to engage for one sublime moment of attention: it is up to you to make the leap.
[SvdK]

At the exhibition Point of View the monograph Heart of Paint will be available, with comments on a selection of the artist's paintings from the period 2000-2006.

Image: Amalia Pica

Galerie Fons Welters
Bloemstraat 140 1016 lj Amsterdam
OPENING HOURS
Tuesday-Saturday 13-18 pm

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