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27/4/2002

Erik van Lieshout

Groninger Museum, Groningen

Naughty by Nature
(not 'cos I hate ye)

The Groninger Museum will present Erik van Lieshout's first solo exhibition in Mendini 0 from 28 April to 8 September 2002. Erik van Lieshout (Deurne, 1968) is a leading and also one of the most talked-about young artists in the Netherlands today. He draws, paints, and builds installations that he occasionally combines with short, clip-like video films.

Characteristic features of Van Lieshout's style, which is sometimes provoking and controversial, are the absurd humour and the intensity of his work. These traits are not only expressed in his paintings but are also recognisable in the installations that are primarily built of scrap and appear to hang together by means of tape and wire stitches. With hedonistic, visionary, low-tech installations such as Sauna (1998) and Zonnebank ('Solarium', 1999), which were also displayed during the exhibition: "Stroomversnelling, tien jonge Nederlandse kunstenaars" (Rapids, ten young Dutch artists) in the Groninger Museum last year, he distances himself from the glossy design that is so commonplace nowadays.

Subcultures and problems of urban life form Van Lieshout's primary sources of inspiration. He takes his images from comic strips, magazines, his immediate environment, or simply from streetlife in general. His video films are not only a reaction to the clip-culture of MTV but are also engrafted upon these. For example, he parodies the hiphop scene and the corresponding clichés. A key work in this genre is EMMDM (1999) or Erik En Maarten Making Deutsch Mark, a short clip to loud hiphop music, in which two gangsters, initially with boxes on their heads and subsequently as bogus Negroes complete with make-up and wigs, have all kinds of adventures while bombing around in a burnt-out Mercedes. At present, Van Lieshout is working on a new video with the same theme, which will be on display in the coming exhibition in the Groninger Museum.

The exhibition will present much new work by Van Lieshout. Despite the fact that his work is currently on display in various museums, this is his first major solo exhibition.

In conjunction with Nai Publishers in Rotterdam, a first publication will appear on the work of this artist. The book will bear the same name as the exhibition.

Groningen Museum
Museumeiland 1
9700 ME Groningen
THE NETHERLANDS
Tel.: 0031(0)50 3666555
Fax: 0031(0)50 3120815

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