Affordable Art Fair Amsterdam 2009

Around two years ago I wrote about affordable art at the Secret Show of Royal College of Art in London. Little did I know Amsterdam had it’s own initiative of bringing the (modern) arts to a larger group of people. It’s called ‘The Affordable Art Fair Amsterdam‘ and it shows contemporary art at a beautiful location. Most important aspect though is the fact that all art displayed ranges between 100 and 5000 EUR.

Last year I couldn’t go, but when a photographer friend invited me to join him last Thursday I of course couldn’t say no. It was incredibly busy, so the whole experience of checking out some fantastic work was made difficult. I also have to say that not all stands were as impressing. Work of some people that were worth noting down (personal opinion all the way) were Ronald Ceuppens (BE, graphic artist, very scenic), Marcel Hoes (NL, photographer, unfortunately his fantastic Amsterdam pictures ar not on his website), Russel West (UK, love the technique, colours and texture) and Fiona Morley (UK, great combination of wire and canvas, hard to capture on picture).

SOHO VI by ©Russell West (45cm x 75cm Oil on Wire on Board)

'Untitled' by ©Fiona Morley (100cm x 100cm, Wire and Emulsion on Canvas)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Main question remains of course whether I brought a piece of art back home? Unfortunately I didn’t, but I will go back next year and look for something that fits both my taste and budget :-)

Doel – the saddest place in Belgium

Silent protest on the Doel streets

Earlier this year I went to the free film festival Pluk de Nacht. One night I was there they showed a short documentary about Doel (“Doel leeft” by Tom Fassaert). It’s a little village in Belgium waiting to be demolished completely for the expansion of the Antwerp port. The documentary showed the last inhabitants that were unable or unwilling to move. Pretty depressing and surreal situation which the documentary showed perfectly.

Last weekend I went to Antwerp and via Twitter I was reminded about Doel. Took the car and in the middle of nowhere we found the town. Even more empty than in the documentary, it was a true ghost town. The one nice thing about it was the abundance of (street) art. Luckily I had my DSLR with me so in the short time I was there I quickly shot some pictures. Via a friend I found a great Flickr set of someone who has been there the same day I was. It’s still unclear when the town will be wiped off the map, but if you want to see it for yourself you’ll have to hurry up.

Sleeveface: Vinyl art

I love old LPs and am collecting them for quite some time already. And since a few months, I can even listen to them when I got a new LP-player :-) I don’t only collect LPs for the great music or that wonderful scratchy sound, but also because of the great design of the sleeves. In one of the first student-house where I lived, I even painted the toilet gold and covered the entire walls with old records!

This week, I saw another initiative in a newspaper on how to be creative with LPs, or more exactly, the sleeves. The idea is simple: take a sleeve, take a face and obscure or augment any part of your body with record sleeve(s) causing an illusion. The result is often strikingly good or just plain hilarious. I included a sleeveface of John Lennon which shows how simple it can be, but how cool the result is. You can visit the official website or check their facebook page for more great examples. Inspired and don’t know how to make your own sleeveface? Check this video.

Fashion Fotography = Art?

I had already read about it in Dutch press, and during my short visit to Düsseldorf the past week some banners reminded me of the exhibition again. I’m talking about the current exhibition in the NRW Forum called MODE:BILDER.

This exhibition combines three things that I enjoy a lot; namely photography, fashion and art! The exhibition is on until 24th March 2008 and shows a selection of works by 100 photographers extending over a period from 1843 to 2006. The main accent is derived the personal style of the collector and curator F.C. Gundlach. The main theme of the exhibition is that it wants to make clear that fashion photography involves a lot more than the mere reproduction of an item of clothing.

Interesting is that the exhibition is literally divided into two parts. The first part is the more classic part of the exhibition, focusing on elegance. My favourite picture ‘Dovina with elephants – 1955 – Richard Avedon’, which I’ve posted here, is the quintessential of this style. The second part, on the other side of the building, was much more contemporary and controversial. The intriguing picture of a naked John Lennon wrapped around Yoko One (by Annie Leibowitz) was part of this section, together with quite some great David LaChapelle pictures (see below, Milk Maids). I have absolutely enjoyed the exhibition, and I can recommend anyone who is slightly interested in either photography or fashion to visit it!

Affordable art – contradictio in termino?

I’ve been gone for a while, which was mainly due to my master thesis, a trip to Cambridge and London and a severe tonsil infection more recently. While being in London, I was reading my favourite English newspaper, The Guardian. I came across a little piece about the chance to own an original work of art by renowned artists like Damien Hirst, Julian Opie or Manolo Blahnik for just 40 GBP.

How is that possible? Since 1994, the Royal College of Art organises an exhibition called the ‘Secret Show‘. RCA describes it as the following: “RCA Secret is an annual contemporary art exhibition consisting of around 2,500 original postcard-sized artworks, made and donated by professional artists, designers and illustrators, plus up-and-coming graduates from the Royal College of Art. The cards are exhibited for a week in the RCA galleries and are then sold to the public in a huge sale, with every postcard costing just £40, regardless of whether it has been made by a well-known artist or a young art student. There is a catch, the cards are only signed at the back, so buyers don’t know whether their choice is a famous artist or an unknown art student until they have bought the card.”

Isn’t that great? It’s all about giving people the chance to buy an original but yet affordable piece of art. Another good thing about it is that the money they make is put into a RCA student fund for upcoming artists, so they are given a chance to establish their-selves as well. The show is open untill November 23, the sale will take place November 24. I think this is a great initiative, too bad we don’t have something like that in the Netherlands.