THE GUESTS
Arno Kramer is an artist and curator of the Drawing Centre Diepenheim. He is referred to as the most important ambassadors of Dutch contemporary drawing. As an artist Kramer combines different materials and techniques, abstraction and figuration. He has had solo exhibitions in Rijksmuseum Twenthe, de Pont in Tilburg and Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature in Paris.
Nadja Romain is a producer, writer, art and strategic consultant and founder of Everything I Want, a London based venture operating worldwide. The company commissions and produces ambitious projects at the crossing of films, performing and visual arts. Recent projects include collaborations with Ron Arad, Isaac Julien, Maria Marshall, Shezad Dawood Ilya and Emilia Kabakov.
Nadja Romain’s new platform Art, Action, Change is devoted to fostering new projects that raise awareness and funding for lasting social change through the arts. A series of Think Tank developed by Art, Action, Change will explore the role of art in society through on stage conversations, performances, exhibitions, film screenings and events. Romain is on the advisory board of Women for Women International and Vanucci Foundation.
THE ARTISTS
Maria Marshall born in India, lives and works in London
This show of eight substantial video pieces by Maria Marshall poses questions relating to the role, the power and penetration of ‘the filmic’ within contemporary culture.
Constructing a series of micro-narratives or audio visual vignettes, Marshall touches, more specifically, upon issues of politics, religion, innocence and invasion, presence and absence, desire and distress and upon the perhaps irresolute relations between children and the adult determined world that they inhabit. In The Hudson, she comments on Trump and immigration, Sofikon, a horse and rider tie up a Byzantine Church. Playground, a boy plays with an invisible ball. Her films strongly reference painting and drawing, as seen in Blue sky thinking, one of a sky writing series.
The works assembled here have been meticulously produced in the manner of miniature Hollywood movies. See Lollipop ( in 200 days I will be 11) influenced by the Western genre. The viewer is challenged by the juxtaposition of the short visual loop with the music composed by Damon Albarn, creating the narrative. Furthermore, evident throughout. For example: In When are we there the viewer is led down the empty but resonant corridors reminiscent of those found in Alain Resnais’ 1961 classic Last year at Marienbad into an unfurnished room in which stands a solitary woman in a plain white dress. We are forced up close to the figure, the camera brazenly scanning the body, from her unshod feet to the top of her head. Subtle but disturbing movements occur beneath the skin.
Christine Macel (curator of the Venice Biennale 2017) cited Marshall’s work as part of a new movement that was based upon ‘the emotional’ (ref: Sensitive published by Taschen 2000). Macel hosted a screening and conversation at the Centre Pompidou, simultaneously purchasing a work for their collection. Since then Marshall has had solo shows at the FRAC, Marseille. (cur: Eric Mangeon) Palais de Tokyo, Paris.( cur. Jerome Sans) Kunstverein Freiburg (cur: Dorothee Straus). Centre l’image contemporains Geneva. Marshall has recently had a mid career retrospective at the Mac’s Museum, Grande Hornu, Belgium, curated by Laurent Busine. Group exhibitions include: The Guggenheim, Whitney, Mac’s, SMAK, Martin Gropius Bau, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Manifesta 10 and the Moscow Biennial.
www.mariamarshall.com
mariamarshallmaria@gmail.com
Femke Gerestein born in Middelburg, lives and works in Rotterdam.
Gerestein makes large works on paper. She joins other contemporary artists who consider drawing to be a primary medium worthy of major artworks. By generating drawings and wall works of considerable physical size she amplifies the attributes of figuration often referring to the distorted details of the human form.
During her three month long residency at Kaus Australis Femke Gerestein benefited from the use of the large working space which allowed her to move forward into new terrain. By using her own body imprints she has released herself from her former constraints and reliance on photos and grids. The new work is made by the most direct and dynamic action of mark making, motion gestures and incidental pile-ups in graphite.
By using her body as a drawing tool with delicately rendered enhancements she has been able to “inhabit” the drawings with unusual evocative effect.
text by Megan Williams
(Los Angeles artist and fellow Kaus Australis resident)
Gerestein is currently also showing her work at: Drawing Rooms #2 in PAK (Gistel, BE) until October 10th 2016 and 5 Years IK – Art In The Residency in Stichting IK (Vlissingen, NL) until October 2nd 2016.
Selected exhibitions include: Waar de hand zingt in Kunstvereniging Diepenheim, Die van Aalst in Galerie EL (Welle BE) and To Be Body in CBK Zeeland (Middelburg).
Femke Gerestein’s residency in Kaus Australis is made possible by the Mondriaan Fund.
www.femkegerestein.nl
info@femkegerestein.nl
THE CURATOR
Lukas Schneeweiss, born in Germany, lives and works in Karlsruhe
The fellow Kaus Australis guest artist Lukas Schneeweiss, who is German and American, curated the exhibition. During his six month ongoing residency in Rotterdam, made possible by Atelier Mondial (Basel, Switzerland), Schneeweiss is preparing work for upcoming exhibitions which include: The Avalanches (with Sebastian Dannenberg) at L6 (Freiburg, Germany), MAKER (with Jens Stickel) at Orgelfabrik (Durlach, Germany) and when empathy and sympathy arrive (solo exhibition) at Kunstverein Wilhelmshoehe Ettlingen (Ettlingen, Germany).
www.LukasSchneeweiss.com
mail@lukasschneeweiss.com
