Levi van Veluw
21 May - 24 June 2011
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| © Levi van Veluw
Origin of the Beginning 1.2, 2011
Lambda print on di-bond with anti-reflex perspex
90 x 180 cm |
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LEVI VAN VELUW
Origin of The Beginning
21 May - 25 June, 2011
Ron Mandos Amsterdam is excited to announce the latest solo exhibition
of Levi van Veluw. We warmly welcome you to join us at the opening
reception of this eagerly anticipated show on Saturday the 21st of May
from 5 to 7 pm, at which the artist will be present.
Levi van Veluw will showcase new work from a series of new
installations, photographs and videos in which he draws from his own
childhood memories to thematically and narratively develop his own brand
of self-portraiture.
The artist has created 3 "rooms” covered with more then 30.000 wooden
blocks, balls and slats respectively. Each "room” is executed as a
life-size installation (4m x 2.5m x 2.5m) and will be presented at the
gallery together with photographs and videos.
Portrayed in one piece is a desk, a table lamp, a bookcase. The edge of
the table is burned by Levi van Veluw as he had an obsession for fire.
All of these objects including every inch of the floor, walls and
ceiling is covered in the same material: 14.000 4 cm2 dark brown wooden
blocks. The blocks are made by the artist and glued on the wall one by
one. The works suggest a narrative world behind the abstract portraits.
On the one hand these works present themselves as a continuation of van
Veluw’s formal approach to self-portraiture, with their preoccupation
for materiality, pattern and texture. Yet they are simultaneously very
personal pieces. The repetitive structures seemingly express a ‘horror
vacui’ and recall van Veluw the youth and his obsessive attempts to gain
control on his life by gaining control of his surroundings. Dimly light
and dark in colour the overriding tone of these pieces are
claustrophobic and sombre, exuding a sense of loneliness. The meticulous
craftsmanship and high quality material with which every last nook and
cranny is covered,result in a series of works that are also highly
aesthetic.
These installations are inspired by different aspects of van Veluw’s
boyhood bedroom, where he spent many solitary hours between the ages of 8
and 14: the Origin of the Beginning.
www.ronmandos.nl
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