Christie van der Haak, Elmar Trenkwalder

installation, sculptures

3 September through 1 October 2017

At the end of the 1980s, Christie van der Haak (1950) made a name for herself with paintings of madonnas whose faces she partially covered with patterns. Since then, ornament has been a constant factor in her art. During the past fifteen years she gradually crossed over from painting to designing patterns for tapestries, wallpanels and upholstery fabrics. The designs usually consist of floral shapes that are mirrored and doubled, resulting in symmetrical shapes that are reminiscent of Art Nouveau and Art Deco patterns. In the gallery Christie van der Haak will create an installation using wallpaper, tapestries, epoxy resin panels and carpets. By alternately enlarging and reducing the scale of the patterns on the wallpaper and the panels, a multi layered overall picture will emerge which the spectator has to zoom in and out on.

Ornamentation also plays an important role in the work of the Austrian sculptor Elmar Trenkwalder (1959). His ceramic sculptures contain a curious fusion of eroticism and architecture. Their exuberant visual language is related to the baroque style, that once flourished in Austria, but also to elements from Hindu art. Among other things, the exhibition will feature sculptures of a monstrance and baroque carriages as well as a large sculpture of an enthroned Madonna flanked by ornate, organically shaped columns. The combination of Christie van der Haak’s patterns and the baroque sculptures of Elmar Trenkwalder creates a modern-day Wunderkammer: overwhelming and almost psychedelic.

Currently Christie van der Haak has an installation at Villa Mondrian, Winterswijk, NL, through 25 February. Elmar Trenkwalder recently showed a large sculpture in the exhibition Sexy Ceramics at Museum Het Princessehof Leeuwarden NL.
see: villamondriaan.nl and www.princessehof.nl