Martijn Hendriks, Matthew Lutz-Kinoy
11 February - 18 March 2012
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MARTIJN HENDRIKS, MATTHEW LUTZ-KINOY
Every Reform Movement Has a Lunatic Fringe
11 February - 18 March, 2012
Duo exhibition of Amsterdam based artist Martijn Hendriks and New York artist Matthew Lutz-Kinoy.
OKAYYYYYYYYY_____.jpg
"We prefer to free art of the demand to proclaim its legitimacy
beforehand. Art doesn’t need the reasons it was given in the 90’s. There
is no reason for us to take away from art exactly that what sets it
apart from other activities”
These words come from the text "Beside itself” [1] written by Martijn
Hendriks, in which he demanded a new form of autonomy for himself and
his colleagues. I met Martijn Hendriks exactly one year ago when he
participated in the exhibition Rhodondendron in W139, curated by Harm
van den Dorpel.
Postmodernism is a great invention of the last century. It taught the
artists to consider themselves in a context together with the past as
infinite stock of sources. Everything was declared conceptual whereby
the new always stands in relation to the old. In fact, Martijn doesn’t
want to turn against it with his call, but he refuses to be still
governed by it. Speaking with the curator and art critic David Joselit's
essay "Painting Beside Itself” [2], Martijn considers his created
objects as "transitive”, which means that his created works are part of a
network of references and players in which object and subject
permanently shift back and forth. To put it simply: I determine my
painting and the painting determines me.
Matthew Lutz-Kinoy and Martijn Hendriks pursue a similar approach. Both
of them describe their image production as a social act or performance
and the outcomes as agents of a pictorial discourse. Yet, they couldn’t
be more different: In contrast to Martijn, Matthew turns more to the
imaginary, fantastic and marginal. His forms shift through the space and
want to move the spectator to dance, while Martijn looks for the rather
silent dialogue developing his shapes within the search for the paradox
and doubt in objectivity.
Both as programme maker and viewer of W139 I have a deep longing for
commitment. I was very impressed by Martijn’s and Matthew’s attitude.
So, what about image production today and what are its conditions? Do we
as producers, like in the way of the old avant-garde, finally orient
ourselves towards impossibilities rather possibilities? Ha – again
trapped in history... I will have to find a new form to speak about both
their works.
Tim Voss, Artistic Director W139
[1] W139 Journal #5 'Art N’Polltix’
[2] October Magazine, Fall 2009, No. 130, Pages 125-134
Martijn Hendriks
Martijn Hendriks's (1973, NL), practice appears to pull us in two
opposite directions - on the one hand, it draws on the art historical
legacies of abstraction and the highly concentrated formal vocabulary
and reductive approach of minimalism. Yet, on the other hand, it brings
these legacies into a process of continuous reconfiguration that
explores their possibilities in relation to the permanently destabilised
state of contemporary images and objects. It unfolds as a state in
which value, meaning and context are constantly shifting.
His work has been exhibited in Europe and the United States. Recent
exhibitions include ‘Autumn of Modernism’ at De Vleeshal, Middelburg
(2012), ‘Memery’ at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art -MASS
MoCA (2011), ‘Free’ at the New Museum, New York and ‘Smooth Structures’
at Smart Project Space, Amsterdam (both 2010), among others.
Website Martijn Hendriks: http://www.martijnhendriks.com
Matthew Lutz-Kinoy
Matthew Lutz-Kinoy (1984, New York, US), followed a recidency at the
Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam from 2010-2011.
Lutz-Kinoy on his work: "Ah! Let’s talk about pleasure! My work is a
point of return in the process of documenting and re-presenting a
collection of performances using video, sculpture and live action. It
compounds the accumulation of this material and creates a new social
space made real by the audiences viewing it. This assumes that a work,
when presented, always mixes a new context: it is extraordinarily
sensitive and could not be any more wrong than right." http://www.rijksakademie.nl/NL/resident/matthew-lutz-kinoy
Lutz-Kinoy’s work has been exhibited around Europa, the US and Taiwan
and include among others exhibitions in Silberkuppe, Berlin, ‘New
Season’, (2011) and ‘Extatic Resistance’ in X-Initiative, New York
(2009). Recent performances include ‘Expanded Benefits Package’ in the
New Museum, New York and at the Liste Fair in Bazel (both 2011).
Website Matthew Lutz-Kinoy: http://www.thewildandexcitinglifeofmatthewrobertlutzkinoyswebbasedsp
www.w139.nl
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