Small adorable gallery in the heart of Utrecht that now goes by the name of Galerie Niek Waterblok,…read morenot Galerie 10. We recently had the honour of being invited here for the opening of a joint exposition between three artists, each with their own happy medium. The current artists are a landscape photographer, a cityscape painter and the multimedia artist who invit ed us: Berry. In case that seems weird to you, Berry is a perfectly normal Dutch name for men. ;)
As a gallery I'm not really sure what the place offers, I believe it's simply a place for artists to rent and display their art at so this review is about the current exposition.
I'll start with Mark who paints cityscapes and modernistic "portraits". I'm not a fan of his portraits, they're neither abstract nor realistic and this is something that always bothers me in art, it gives me a feeling of "I'm an artist, but I have no message, no perspective on my subject" and that could very well just be me of course but still it's quite bothersome. As for his cityscapes, they work for me. Subtle colours, often dark and mostly reminiscent of winter. Quite invigorating for a winter loving person like me so a lot of love there!
Then Heleen, the landscape photographer: excellent eye! She has some beautiful blown up negatives of a pinhole photography project on the coast of Brittany in France and two series of another beach day which I found very emotive. Stunning work, but sadly out of my price range.
And then of course Berry who paints, draws and edits away daily on his iPhone. Mountainscapes seem to be his thing when it comes to painting and drawing with the occasional forest where you have the perspective of looking up at reasonably abstracted trees. His use of colours in the paintings seems to really depend on his moods, some being quite lively in colour and others being a bit more dreary with his drawings always being made with grey pencil, coal or black fineliner as a sturdy and dependable guide through his mind. Then once you reach his prints: wow. This is where you truly see how constantly active his artistic mind really is. Over a hundred prints edited from photographs taken of everyday people, each one different, some binded by a common theme or element and some being completely individual. In my mind a great reflection of everyday life with the opportunity of finding at least one print that stands out and speaks to you. The wall of prints is impressive, completely full of life and if I were rich I would have bought the entire collection for my new living room but for now I'm perfectly content with my lively red head in her blue dress.
Now I would like to remind you that art is of course very personal and evokes completely different responses in every single person so I encourage you to see this exposition soon and see how it makes you feel. In my opinion there's enough diversity between these three artists to find something that speaks to your emotions and memories, so come, appreciate and if you see something you love, take it home.
