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 :-)

Fuck You Very Much – the blog

‘Fuck you very much’ is more than just an annoying song by Lily Allen, it’s actually one of my favourite blogs at the moment. It’s a relatively young tumblr-blog (April ‘09) that can be described as a visual diary. Basically they post a few stunning pictures a day which are accompanied by mostly great one-liners. Simple but nevertheless funny, cool or touching. I loved the following pic they put up today, been there and hated it too…

we hate goodbyes - by fyvm

It’s is kind of mysterious who is behind the blog (“a boy and a girl”) but given some of their posts I can at least tell they are from my favourite city, Copenhagen (Denmark). FYVM has a twitter account too, you can follow them here.

Update (Sept 17th): They have reveiled a bit more information on their website, it’s a girl living in New York and a boy living in London (still think they are Danish though).

Ze Frank at Pluk de Nacht

The picture above is a scene you will find at Pluk de Nacht (carpe noctem in Latin). It is already the sixth year that this free, open air film festival is organised in Amsterdam.  Besides the fact that it is outside, the unique selection of unreleased independent arthouse cinema, documentary, animation and shorts that are shown is quite remarkable.

I was there on the 9th, when a retrospective of Ze Frank was shown. Ze Frank gained fame with his daily video blog ‘The Show‘ and has also been a speaker at TED. I actually didn’t know him before, but his work that I have seen was pretty hilarious! Gotta love the typical, dry type of humor though (also referred to as ‘nerdcore comedy’), so it might not be for everyone. Curious whether you would like it? You have one last chance to see his work since he will be giving a live performance tomorrow at Timorplein!

Savvy – the magazine I’ve been waiting for

Last week I read on Dutch Cowgirls, a fairly new (May ‘08) blog which quickly has become one of my favourites, that a new magazine will be launched in the Netherlands this week. Since I work in PR, I read about new launches every week. While reading the description though, I immediately wanted to have it! Savvy Magazine tag-off is “a Women’s Guide to Gadgets”.  It will focus on electronic wanna-haves, such as the latest phones, netbooks, cameras etc. Let’s just hope they won’t only focus on the ‘typical female’ pink/glittery products manufacturers like to think we’re interested in…  This magazine sounds like a perfect combination of Bright and DCG, so I’m very curious to read the first edition on Thursday!

First edition's cover of Savvy Magazine

Seth Godin & Malcolm Gladwell on SUCCESS

This week I’ve read two interesting pieces about one topic from two very successful people, namely the New York bestseller author Malcolm Gladwell and marketing guru Seth Godin.They talked about something that interests me greatly: what is it that makes people stand out and be successful?

Malcolm Gladwell´s new book Outliers

First, let’s talk about Malcolm Gladwell (writer of one of my favourite books called Blink). His new book Outliers, which will be released November 18th, is a book about success. “It starts with a very simple question: what is the difference between those who do something special with their lives and everyone else?” According to Social Capital Blog, “Gladwell thinks success in the 21st century is going to be less about sheer intelligence and more about collaboration and hard work to get to the level of mastery in a topic (which he says typically takes 10,000 hours)”.

Seth Godin discusses the relationship between effort and success on his blog. He states the following: “Delete the outliers–the people who are hit by a bus or win the lottery, the people who luck out in a big way, and we’re left with everyone else. And for everyone else, effort is directly related to success.” He continues with statements that I couldn´t agree more with:

Effort takes many forms. Showing up, certainly. Knowing stuff (being smart might be luck of the draw, but knowing stuff is the result of effort). Being kind when it’s more fun not to. Paying forward when there’s no hope of tangible reward. Doing the right thing.

Although Seth and Malcolm discuss the topic from a different perspective, they come to a similar conclusion: reaching success is merely hard work. Although this can be hopeful for some people (success is in reach for all of us), it also implies that the less successful just haven´t worked hard enough. That one is a tougher cookie than just blaming it on others or circumstances. For the latter, just don´t read Malcolm Gladwell´s new book :-)

Oktoberfest

Last weekend I did something that was on my to-do list for a long time already. It involved beer (lots of it), funny dresses and pants (respectively Dirndls and Lederhosen) and old fashioned German music… Yes, I went to the Oktoberfest in Munich!

Since my Germany fondness started to develop a few years ago, I knew the Oktoberfest was something I just had to do one day. After contemplating of visiting the past two years, last weekend I finally went there. And it was great! When you go, one has to go in style so I bought myself a Dirndl (see picture). For obvious reasons men really like this piece of traditional clothing. While wearing it, I of course made a beginners mistake: I wore the bow of my skirt on my back (meaning you’re a widow), instead of on the left (=single, right = taken).

Yours truly in a Dirndl (traditional bavarian dress)

I stayed at Hippodrom, one of the nicer tents of the 11 that are on the Wiesn. For an impression of what it looks like during the day, watch this (don’t let yourself be misled with this video, it gets crazy after dark). As I’m not much of beer drinker, I wondered how I should survive a place where they only serve beers by the liter (Maβ). However, I did so there is hope for everyone :-) One other thing international visitors should do while going to Oktoberfest is to learn ‘Ein Prosit’ by heart (they will play it every three minutes!).

When you have been thinking about visiting this crazy party, I can only say: mach’s einfach (= just do it)!

NY Times proclaimed Amsterdam as ‘reigning capital of cool’

Old news to its inhabitants, but of course worth sharing with the rest of the world. I just wanted to share a few quotes from the publication.

The Dutch capital has emerged as a cultural juggernaut, with everyone from designers to DJ’s flexing their creative muscles

Concept dining is ‘in the elevator’ as the Dutch say. Following in the heels of big ideas like dining in bed (Supperclub) or dining in the dark (Ctaste), the latest theme is the twist on a classic mantra: odd location, odd location, odd location

From big ticket furniture galleries to workaday markets, every inch of town bears that Dutch knack for design

Amsterdam "reigning capital of cool" according to NY Times

Got curious and want to read more? The article touches upon a limited but clever selection of design shops, trendy lounges, oddly-located restaurants, architectural hot spots, hotels and new creative breeding grounds such as the NDSM and Westergasfabriek. Go here and click on the icons to discover the wonderful city I live in.

Surprising Spain

A month ago it was time for another trip, to Spain! After only seeing Malaga and Marbella, I wanted to explore the southern region Andalusia a little bit more by visiting Sevilla. Hardly did I know that this little city was so beautiful.

Santa Cruz, Sevilla

I absolutely loved the little area called Santa Cruz, it was so idyllic with it’s little alleys and charming, old houses. I was just impressed by the size of Seville’s cathedral, Catedral de Santa María de la Sede, the largest Gothic cathedral in the world. Make sure you go up in it’s tower – Giralda – to have a magnificent view of the city. The most amazing part of Seville was another place called Alcázares Reales de Sevilla. It is a palace, but not a regular one since it is build mostly in Mudéjar style. I felt like I was in a different world, and after entering the gardens I thought I was in paradise for a moment. Although, the constant heat of 40 Celsius made me quickly realise I was not :-)

After my few days of culture and fun in Seville it was time for some sight-seeing in Madrid. Staying with a friend in the city center made it easy for me to visit all tourist must-haves which I didn’t have the time for next to all the partying last time I was in Madrid. One night the sky was just perfectly blue in a way you would never see in the Netherlands (picture). However, only one night I was able to admire it since the other two nights I went out until the sun came up. First night we went to a club called Joy, quite touristy and not particularly great. The next day we wanted to go to Palacia, but since it was closed we ended up in Kapital. A bit expensive, but quite a cool club with different themed seven floors, an semi open rooftop and even a karaoke bar – how cool is that! ¡Me gusta España!

Madrid by night

Me in a bull fight arena in Sevilla

University of Sevilla

Santa Cruz, Sevilla

Working abroad – just do it!

Headline in the Dutch news this week: ‘Two third of Dutch students want to do an internship abroad’. Of course this got my attention since I’m a strong advocate of going abroad, either studying, travelling or working. However, what surprised me was that only 2 percent (!) actually realise their dream.

For me personally, all the cliches about going abroad are true: expanding your horizon, learning about different cultures, developing yourself, learning new laguages and making friends all over the world. I’ve studied in Copenhagen – Denmark and Münster – Germany. However, after my initial internship in Amsterdam, I also wanted work abroad, so London it was :-) This internship was different fom my study exchanges, since I was not discussing and reading about e.g. ‘international management’ but was actually experiencing it myself. Even though I was in London for a short bit, it has opened my eyes about working abroad and that it involves more difficulties than one would think. Albeit, it is worth it on every level! I am also positive that it helped me getting me where I am today. I’m happy I’m part of those two percent. Thinking about doing an internship abroad?  Make sure you join the two percent…

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.