Art Rotterdam 2021

BOOTH 72

The 22nd edition of Art Rotterdam will take place from July 1st - 4th, 2021. Located in the iconic Van Nelle-factory, the art fair will once again form a dynamic meeting point for art lovers and connoisseurs.

As the focus of Art Rotterdam lies with contemporary art which is dynamic and challenging, Rutger Brandt Gallery is proud to showcase art by Radenko Milak, Steffen Kern, Emmanuel Barcilon and Thijs Jansen. 

Radenko Milak's (1980) practice as an artist has always been heavily influenced by the idea that our relationship to the world and its history is largely determined by the uninterrupted and continuous flow of images that documents the world. At Art Rotterdam 2021, we will exhibit new artworks by this extraordinary artist. Milak has created striking depictions of the world during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Steffen Kern (1988) creates drawings with ink, charcoal and oil pastels. He invokes a photographic aesthetic in his work by applying photographic elements such as blooming and depth of field. By drawing on his own memories for inspiration, the artist tries to speak to the beholder's collective pictorial memory. This is why his images often become recognizable to the beholder: we have already seen them in films, photographs, or real life.

Emmanuel Barcilon's (1967) works consists of layers of pure pigments poured onto the surface, which he then manipulates to make the underlying layers partially visible again. Barcilon sometimes takes up to a year to complete a painting. Layer upon layer without completely removing the previous one. The transparent layers and contrasting colors at the edges of the panel make many nuances of color and line visible. These bring about an almost hypnotic effect.
His sense of space and structure as well as his bravery with color, gives the works their originality; the paintings manage to be visually rich and spiritual at the same time.

Thijs Jansen (1986) rounds out the presentation with claustrophobic paintings of elevator interiors, their doors shut, reflecting nothing but a fluorescent sheen.
A wonderful juxtaposition between abstraction and highly detailed realism.
The steel door is in essence no more than that of an abstract painting and only by adding the subtle lines the mind recognizes it at as elevator door.The paintings are all executed in 2020 and carry the weight of that hemmed-in year.