© Geerten Verheus

© Geerten Verheus


Elsewhere
Tjebbe Beekman
, Arjan van Helmond, Geerten Verheus


"Elsewhere" is an exhibition of work by three young Dutch artists who subtly, at times even imperceptibly, alter representations of place.


Tjebbe Beekman's paintings seem to oscillate between literal representations of the urban metropolis which is his subject, and fragmented, disorientating visions. They begin with photographs, multiple views of the same urban scene, the process of painting them brings the views together in an uneasy equilibrium, at one moment cohesive, at the next dissolving again into its prism of viewpoints. Though the painted image becomes more unreal as it moves away from a single literal perspective, in another way it represents a far truer vision of the city than a single photograph, truer to the interruption, the restlessness of lived urban experience. His paintings combine jarring media and modes of representation in a disjunction which parallels their conflicting views.


Arjan van Helmond's paintings also make reference to photography. He paints buildings, typically interior or exterior views of domestic buildings in suburban settings. His clearest reference is to the utilitarian photography of Ruff or the Bechers. Yet van Helmond re-invests narrative into his subjects, fictional narrative that has nothing to do with the buildings actual history or present, but stems instead from its generic features, its style, and extrapolates from them possible psychological or sentimental associations.


In his photo-collages, Geerten Verheus too uses adapted photographs of places in his work. He combines unrelated found images, culled from newspapers and magazines, which are brought together only by their formal rhythm. The results, in contrast with Beekman's compilations, appear seamless - but reveal subtle displacements of context: white plastic carrier bags litter a snowy mountain scene, and blend in by a kind of visual subterfuge - relics of urban debris which imitate the snow-covered rocks of the romantic rural scene they inhabit, a soldier's body in is draped over a pile of logs, his camouflage gear a sign of the process by which the work is made.


Tjebbe Beekman studied at the Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten in the Hague and Arjan van Helmond studied at the Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht and the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam. They are both currently in residence at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam. Geerten Verheus studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam and then at Chelsea School of Art. He lives and works in Berlin. Recent exhibitions include "Big Mag Space Model" at De Appel, Amsterdam and "Here and Now" at Büro Friedrich, Berlin. He has shown in London at the Jerwood Space and the Trade Apartment.


Exhibition: 31 January - 13 March 2004
Gallery hours: Tue-Fri 10am - 6pm, Sat 12 - 5pm


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