Pascal van der Graaf, Ingrid van der Hoeven, Justin Wijers

paintings, sculptures, drawings

26 January – 2 March 2008

Pascal van der Graaf (1979) palette consists of grey tones only. With this he establishes a neutral image in which he examines different ways of painting. Often there is a dramatic movement present in the image, of a bended tree or the ellipse of a wheel, that covers the canvas from bottom to top. This leads the eye of the viewer from the velvety bottom party, to the angular fir-trees at the horizon, to the sky, in which psychedelic waving clouds are hanging. On the tree trunk, words have been painted, often dark texts from pop songs, that strengthens the threatening, sometimes apocalyptical atmosphere of the image.

Ingrid van der Hoeven (1962) focused in her images on the classic Indonesian and Chinese idiom as you see in temple and tomb architecture. The woman there often appears as a stylized, kneeling figure. For some time now this traditional, serving attitude made its way for a self-confident, tough image of women in contemporary fashion and movies in China. The images are composed of laminated MDF, hard and soft board, which is marked with saw cuts the line of clothing. Women are shown from the waist down, their attitude is both challenging and thoughtfully, as if waiting for the right moment to take action. Their faces are not filled so there is not a portrait but a universal image of the modern Asian woman.

Justin Wijers (1981) draws images of victims of violence or traffic accidents, which he finds on the internet. With thin colour pen he reproduces the damaged bodies in precise, delicate lines. Because the bodies are often mutilated beyond recognition, the first thing you see are the colourful patterns of the pen, which resemble a map or a field abloom with plants.

In the patterns Justin Wijers often writes texts that spontaneously come to him while drawing. For some time now, he uses the technique of watercolour in his work as well, which gives the image a more soft appearance. All the works testify of great dedication and concentration. As if the anonymous victims that on internet sites function as horror objects are given a last tribute by the artist.