FOG Gallery Bratislava: Dita Pepe & Eliška Sky
Dita Pepe Czech 1973 (images 1-3)
Dita Pepe in her artistic practice explores the vast array of possible lives and identities she could have had in parallel realities. The notion of the «what if…» question leads her towards an investigation of other women’s experiences. Their stories and visual identities serve Pepe as filters to focus on her own feelings. By putting on costumes, she dresses into their visual and emotional skins in order to stage a performance in front of her own camera. Wandering through a world of countless possibilities, she seeks her own space, her own path.
Eliška Sky (Eliška Kyselková) (Czech/UK ) 1990 (images 4-6)
When looking at Eliška Sky’s work, we feel that her uniqueness comes from her ability to see things differently from the rest of us. Her strong sense of colour, shape and theatricality is extraordinary. She lets her imagination run wild by creating unusual angles, shapes, styling and elaborate set designs through her surrealistic vision. Eliška Sky is redefining the norms of everyday. She is breaking stereotypes and challenges the view on the female body by bringing new views on how to interpret femininity.
FOG Gallery
www.fogbratislava.sk
@fogbratislava
Galerie Caroline O’Breen Tanja Engelberts, Mounir Raji, misha de ridder
misha de ridder (NL, 1971) : (images 7-8)
In his latest works, stemming from photographs of erased graffiti, misha de ridder plays with the notions of destruction, generation, and transformation.
We live in an era heavily influenced by media representations, simulations, and digital experiences. “Substituting the signs of the real for the real” is a concept introduced by philosopher Jean Baudrillard. He argues that in modern society, the line between reality and these artificial worlds has become blurred.
The act of erasing can involve both destruction and generation, transformation and reimagination — allowing for new possibilities to emerge. ‘glitch’ meditates on the idea of “unwanted information”. Graffiti is a subversive, spontaneous form of communication meant for the masses. Through the work of misha de ridder, it is transformed and reimagined. Information that has been erased becomes information again, randomness as a surrealist technique.
de ridder’s erased graffiti often appear abstract, capturing palpable razor-sharp details. Tactility of the walls and the diversity of shapes intensify the painterly quality of the work. de ridder’s approach is ultimately about looking through physical reality. In that sense, his work is a continuous search for, in the artist’s words, “unreal reality”.
‘glitch’ is a conceptual art project, a series of images that blur the lines between abstract painting, photography, animation, and protocol art. The project comprises physical fine art prints as well as 50 animated GIFs stored using a blockchain protocol. A smart contract makes the digital art dynamic: each time a token is traded, the associated artwork changes and eventually fades away, both an ode to and a critique on blockchain art and the dreams and promises of crypto.
Mounir Raji (1982, NL): Dreamland (images 9-10)
For a period of five years (2017-2022), Mounir Raji spent much of his time traveling around Morocco in the areas rarely visited by tourists. The outcome of this investigation is an artist book Dreamland – a deeply personal narrative woven from Raji’s impressions of his motherland. The exhibition incorporates archival videos sourced from his family archive, enhancing the sense of personal interpretation of the past that permeates the project. Fascinated by daily life and photographing his family as well as strangers, Raji creates a nostalgic view of Morocco reminiscent of his youth. The work, on the one hand, is idealisation, and on the other hand, it’s an insight into the everyday. The vivid colours of landscapes, the soft use of light and the embrace of the blazing sun resemble a dream world or an idyllic memory.
However, amidst this dream-like imagery, Raji captures the essence of ordinary street life, the cityscape in the middle of the desert, and the surrounding nature. In juxtaposing idealisation with everyday moments, Dreamland becomes an exploration of this dual perspective. Linked with the video from Raji’s family archive, Dreamland is less an objective document and more a personal interpretation of the past. To what extent does the homeland begin to resemble an ideal world? For Mounir, this project is about the sense of warmth and safety one experiences reuniting with family, and also about feelings of trust, freedom and hope.
Tanja Engelberts(b. 1987) the Netherlands, Dead River (images 11-12)
In the 1950s, Rhône was declared dead. With the development of hydroelectricity, new canals took over the old river, dikes were built against flooding and dams were put up in the name of technology. The river – once the symbol of an uncontrollable force – had been conquered, but how would the river best describe itself?
For Dead River, Tanja Engelberts tries to imagine what it’s like to be a fast-flowing river that slowly accumulates Anthropocene-era artifacts over a 600-kilometer stretch. Inspired by Bruno Latour’s The Parliament of Things – in which the philosopher argues that laws and politics should not be centred only around people, but should respond to all things and life forms – the artist examines the river from an animistic point of view. Engelberts followed the fast current of the Rhône from the Mediterranean to its source in the glaciers of Switzerland. The landscape that she discovered, steeped in chemical waste, is gradually disappearing due to the effects of climate change. Where the Rhône has been subdued by hydraulic and nuclear technology, Engelberts wanted to adopt a technical and distant approach to her own way of working. The artist made photographs and a video from the perspective of the river itself, focusing on the junction of water and riverbanks – sometimes it’s a natural barrier, but more often stone or concrete. Along these riverbanks, she found a clay-like substance that she incorporated into her works. Engelberts created relieves on the basis of laser cut photographs of the river and pressed clay into them. She then glazed her ceramic landscapes with clay sourced from the Rhône – typical for the work of Engelberts, the subject and object become intertwined within the artwork.
Galerie Caroline O’Breen
1016 SR Amsterdam
www.carolineobreen.com
Galerie Helder Den Haag: Svante Gullichsen, Andrés Gallego, Vincent van Gaalen
Svante Gullichsen (Finland), 1994 (images 13-15)
Svante Gullichsen uses photography for a personal challenge with the elements. The landscape is used to unravel his search for the ‘mystery’ of being human. Alone or with additional models he figures in the surroundings of the Finnish Porvoo archipelago. Winter predominates in that landscape. The light is diffuse, the earth looks soft, silence everywhere. In the warmer periods, when greenery is dominant, the mighty trees still remain silent in dense forests. Together with the flat, clear lakes, they characterize this unspoilt nature. For Gullichsen, this is an ideal place for inspiration, where harmony is created between the pure simplicity of body and mind. His works are staged on the spot and are created without further interventions. Unrest only disappears when the picture is correct.
His works are in fact the result of a performance in often extreme circumstances. Severe cold, sharp rocks, rough trees or soft mosses, they all torment or cherish the vulnerable body. That’s how he looks for who or what is his opponent. It makes a strong demand on his stamina to endure and understand the rough nature with both body and mind.
Gullichsen’s works tend towards the well-known interpretations of nature from German Romanticism, like that of Casper David Friedrich (‘Der Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer’, 1818). It also refers to classic Greek mythology, such as his ‘Icarus’ in a white landscape. Further, you’ll recognize something from the Dutch artist Bas Jan Ader (1942-1975), who challenged the elements with similar dedication. Gullichsen’s photography testifies to an existential longing for security. The images have an intimate, poetic quality and will remain in your memory for a long time.
Andrés Gallego (Spain) 1983 (images 16-18)
The ‘Hopper Essence’ series by photographer Andrés Gallego (ES, 1983) are photographs based on the work of Edward Hopper (USA, 1882-1967), in which the views from the windows have been transferred by the artist himself with acrylic paint on canvas, as well as the scenography, reproduced on a true scale. On them his wife is depicted, exactly as Hopper depicted his Jo. It can be seen as a portrait of her or, as the painter did, as a portrait of each one of us, a place to hide.
It is curious to think that, for a time, Edward Hopper photographed architectural details and spaces and then used the images to support the development of his work, and that he abandoned this procedure, convinced that the photographs differed greatly from the perspective of the human eye. Perhaps he thought that it is impossible to represent what we see with our eyes through a lens, or that what is important, after all, is his own internal vision, i.e., subjective perception.
In 1992, a number of American photographers paid homage to Hopper in an exhibition linking photography and painting. At the event, Joel Meyerowitz emphasised the fundamental difference between the nature of photography as a momentary event and the nature of painting as a process, but what happens when we unite both languages in the same work?
Vincent van Gaalen (The Netherlands) 1984 (images 19-21)
For the project ‘Absence’ Vincent van Gaalen travels to the last dark areas of Europe where the nightly darkness has not (yet) been replaced by artificial light. Amidst this darkness – surrounded only by his photographic equipment, a tent, and some provisions Van Gaalen photographs our human absence. Leaves, stones, water and air catch the light of the moon and stars. The deepest blacks emerge, outlines are enhanced. In this world, as darkness takes control, reason makes way for imagination. It makes us vulnerable. The landscape remains barely visible but tangible all the more.
‘Absence’ is an ongoing project that Van Gaalen started in 2020. In his work, he studies the age-old friction between creating mankind and the autonomy of nature.
Galerie Helder
2518 VT Den Haag
www.galeriehelder.nl
Gallery Untitled Rotterdam: Lenny Oosterwijk, Hans van Asch
Lenny Oosterwijk (The Netherlands) 1969 (images 22-24)
Lenny Oosterwijk embarked his photographic journey focussing on rivers since 2007, titling the project “Heraclitus.” Inspired by Heraclitus’ philosophy that “no one can step into the same river twice,” Oosterwijk captures the ever-changing nature of rivers, where different water always flows. His photographs of river reflections present abstract, dynamic images that blur the line between photography and painting, evoking a sense of movement and change. In 2014, Oosterwijk expanded his exploration with the film “Heraclitus,” which premiered at the Rotterdam International Film Festival and Kunsthal Rotterdam. Since 2022, Lenny Oosterwijk has shifted his focus towards capturing the myriad gradients of blues in the sky. This new direction in his work continues to blur the boundaries between photography and painting, albeit in a more abstract manner. Oosterwijk’s photographs of the sky evoke a sense of ethereal beauty, capturing the everchanging hues and textures of the atmosphere in mesmerizing detail. Through his lens, he invites viewers to contemplate the transient nature of light and color, creating images that resonate with a sense of wonder and awe. Lenny Oosterwijk won De Zilveren Camera in the Portrait category with a photo of Armand (2016).
Hans van Asch (The Netherlands) 1964 (Images 25-27)
Hans van Asch is a distinguished fine art photographer known for his unique approach to creating images. He meticulously constructs compositions from scratch using a digital camera, avoiding digital manipulation in post-production. Van Asch’s works blend elements of architecture, minimalism, and visual poetry, resulting in images that inhabit the intersection of abstraction and figuration. A notable feature of van Asch’s work is his incorporation of live birds, which he lures with worms in his backyard. This adds spontaneity and life to his meticulously crafted scenes, creating a dynamic tension between reality and surrealism. His photographs offer realistic depictions of familiar subjects that often evoke an uncanny sense of unreality, challenging viewers to reconsider their perceptions of the world. Hans: ‘I take great pleasure in taking things out of their context, liberating them from their purposes, expectations and functionalities, and then transforming them into a visual poetic reality.’ Overall, Hans van Asch’s photography represents a compelling fusion of technical skill, conceptual depth, and creative vision, inviting viewers to explore the boundaries between the tangible and the imagined in his meticulously crafted compositions.
Gallery Untitled
3037 VS ROTTERDAM
www.galleryuntitled.nl
MAXUS101 Copenhagen: Johnny Jensen (Danish) (images 28-30)
Johnny Jensen’s Land is a profound continuation of his 1996 series Landskab, where he initially rephotographed postcards and removed all traces of their original production, creating the illusion that these landscapes had been captured by a single photographer with a unified vision. In this new series, Jensen revisits the same material, layering it with halftone patterns, transforming traditional landscape photography into a meditative exploration of perception, memory, and the constructed nature of images.
By incorporating halftone rostering, Jensen disintegrates the landscapes into visible points, making them exist only in the viewer’s mind as the final image forms. This technique compels the audience to engage with the work not just visually but intellectually, as the landscapes dissolve and reform depending on the viewer’s distance and perception. The result is a landscape that hovers between abstraction and recognition, creating a dialogue between the visible and the conceptual. The images do not simply present a view of nature; they require the viewer to reconstruct them, questioning the reliability of representation itself.
One of the most striking aspects of Land is how Jensen shifts the focus from the landscapes themselves to their representation. This work goes beyond a simple reflection of photography as a medium; it delves into the spiritual and existential dimensions of human experience. The landscapes in Land suggest a deeper longing for something more profound—perhaps a connection with the divine or a rediscovery of the inherent beauty and harmony in the natural world. Ultimately, Land is an invitation to reflect on the nature of perception and the way images shape our understanding of reality.
MAXUS101
Copenhagen
www.maxus101.com
