No Style
reflections of public statements on art..
Opening 4 Februari: 17.00 - 19.30 uur
Upstream Gallery proudly presents “No Style, reflections of public statements on art..” a solo exhibition with new works of the Dutch artist Jeroen Jongeleen (Apeldoorn, 1967).
Jeroen Jongeleens’ work generally evolves in public space. He leaves traces in the urban landscape which he documents with photographs and films. He labors under the alias “influenza”, creating various icons, signs and texts as an anonymous signature. With his interventions he promotes the free use of urban public space and criticizes the way advertisements, architectural structures and signs regulate public behavior. He chooses to counterattack by bringing subversive forms of creativity into publicity.
In this exhibition Jongeleen brings the street within the walls of the ‘white cube’. The works, made of discarded Ikea cupboards on which short quotes are sprayed, criticize the regulated, engineered society in which we live.
The composition of the works shows that Jongeleen carefully selected and matched his material. The layout of the works and the colors of the cabinet doors are clearly inspired by the minimal compositions of Mondrian and De Stijl.
Also in his texts Jongeleen refers to icons of modern art, as demonstrated by the quote on one of the pieces: At least before we used to have real artists like Mondrian, Rietveld, Van Gogh etc.. Jongeleen finds many of his texts on Geen Stijl, a weblog that publicizes sharp opinionated pieces focused on news, actual events and politics. He selects opinions on contemporary art, spraying these quotes onto the sterile minimalistic surfaces of his artworks. The texts critically address the economic underpinnings of contemporary art, framing the latter as a complex system of patronage that forges its own exclusive habitus and undermines the freedom and creativity of art. Through this Jongeleen asks attention for the public ideas on art.
“The horizon, a phenomenon as nearby and predictable as it is faraway and impalpable, as circumscribed and finite as it is expansive and infinite.
(Jacinto Lageira ‘The Dividing Line’ from cat. Ger van Elk, The Horizon, a Mental Perspective)
Upstream Gallery proudly presents Mapping the Horizon. In this groupshow the work of conceptual artists, who have their roots in the 1960s and 1970s, is combined with recent work of a younger generation. On show are early and recent works of Frank Ammerlaan (1979), Marc Bijl (1970), Marinus Boezem (1934), Luis Camnitzer (1937), Ger van Elk (1941), Jeroen Jongeleen (1968) and Noor Nuyten (1986).
Marinus Boezem ‘Della Scultura & La Luce’ 1985
Paper, linen, plastic, 9,5 x ø 65 cm
Upstream Gallery is pleased to present a soloshow with a new series of paintings and drawings by the Armenian born painter Armen Eloyan.
Armen Eloyan is known for his large, brutally energetic paintings from animals and cartoon characters in absurd scenarios. In his work he effortlessly combines the dark, the messy, the brutal with humour, reminding us not to take ourselves too seriously and asking us to reconsider our own positions again and again.
Eloyan was born in Armenia in 1966. He studied at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam, graduating in 2005. He now lives and works in Zurich. Recently his work was on show at Kunsthalle Bern; Bob van Orsouw Gallery, Zurich; Timothy Taylor Gallery, London; Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York; Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, St Gallen; GEM Museum, The Hague; Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris and Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art, London.
Cristóbal Léon & Joaquín Cociña ‘The Third World’
soloshow with new videoworks
Upstream Gallery is pleased to present the first soloshow in the Netherlands by the Chilean artists Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña.
“It is inevitable to think that this hallucinatory and ridiculous show expresses somehow the subterranean and transgressor spirit. The Third World is the only salvation”
El Divino Anticristo José Mariíta
Animation (stop-motion animation, puppetry animation) is one of the key themes in the strange and magically surreal films by Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña. In their exhibition “The Third World” they show a video-installation made up of the 3 films “El Arca”, “El Templo” and “Padre. Madre.”, all of them produced during the last year.
These films are the foundational chapters of a new creed. They present a savage procession, moving between sacred and intimate, beautiful and horrific, canonical and arbitrary, sublime and bestial. Every film is the beginning of a myth and also its immediate decadence.
In her new show Vicini Lontani / Distant Neighbors at Upstream Gallery, Wood documents the migrants’ journey across unmapped territory between two politically opposite landscapes. North Africa and Lampedusa Island, Italy or ‘the port to Europe’ as the immigrants call it. According to Italy’s Interior minister Roberto Maroni, this year nearly 20.000 North African migrants have come ashore in Italy. The majority have arrived on Lampedusa, a tiny island with only 5.300 local inhabitants. The last 2 years Wood regularly travelled to Lampedusa to collect and document ‘migrant material’ through interviews, photography, film and found objects.
The new soloshow of Marc Bijl at Upstream Gallery will be the last show
where dark symbolism will meet up with abstract forms. After this it
will be codes only. It is the moment before total paranoia and
abstraction of the artists work.
For his first solo show at Upstream Gallery, Zwartjes has build a
monumental installation which best can be characterized as environmental,
the podia on which episodes of a narrative take place. This new
installation is constructed from damaged, half decayed materials and
objects that Zwartjes collected during his journeys through the city.
Together with a number of life-size figures, the found materials make up
the decor for a mythological journey of self-destruction to rebirth in an
apocalyptic tableau.
Art Forum Berlin Solo-presentation with Marc Bijl
Presentations with Jeroen Jongeleen and Jen Liu in the curated groupshow Big City Lab
Marc Bijl ‘A search into the Nature of Society’ 2005/06.
Artnews Projects
Artnews Projects is the experimental space of Artnews.info. In October 2006 Artnews Projects presented its first exhibition with Cristian Andersen, Marc Bijl, David Haines and Lucy Wood, curated by Nieck de Bruijn, Upstream Gallery Amsterdam.
Upstream-show at Artnews Projects, Brunnenstrasse 190, Berlin
Almost everyone longs for meaningful contact, whether it is through involvement in a public event or a private interaction. In fact, even seemingly aggressive acts can reveal vulnerability in this regard, which attests to the truly complex nature of human relations.
British artist, David Haines, creates contemplative and obsessive drawings, songs, and videos to connect with the unfamiliar — he offers personal representations of the anonymous figures central to his voyeuristic pursuits, he locates poetic contexts in ambiguous texts drawn from online forums and, through his observations, seemingly banal scenarios prove to be extraordinarily multifaceted. Haines knows there is always more than meets the eye, and he invites audiences to join him the search for that which lies beneath the surface.
Pepo Salazar
‘Rich bitch with stinking slit /
sits on slim kid’s stiff dick /
Drink and lick / Think a hit.’
Since 1990 Salazar has been working on videoperformance, video, sound, drawing, installation and photography.
In his work Salazar spectacularly twists and manipulates concepts from their etymological base. Concepts that historically had a utopic and subversive connotation are metamorphosed completely through the language of the media and what possibilities of persuasion these new meanings have. The result of this mutations is a collection of depoliticised images, words and strategies adapted to neoliberal ideology and marketing.
The work of Pepo Salazar tries to show and criticise these aspects and includes elements that belong to the artistic sphere, to subversive positions found on the fringe of politics, to the operative capacity of cultural projects in a society which definitely does not understand complex political language.
Jeroen Jongeleen’s sticker and graffiti actions counter the standardized
and commercialized inner-city spaces with subtle interventions. Under the
label ‘Influenza’ - referring to its potential effect as uninvited
distorted of the common, creating an alias for the maker at the same time
- Jongeleen continuously develops new signs, figures and texts. He often
makes direct reference to the hegemony of architectural structures and
public advertising displays, shifts or supplements their visual codes.
Jeroen Jongeleen grasps his work not only as an activist strategy, but
also as an examination of the possibilities of artistic expression in
public space.
Laura Parnes
Blood and Guts in High School
8 dec - 15 januari
Upstream Gallery will show a series of video’s titled ‘Blood and Guts in High School’ by Laura Parnes. A series of video installations that re-imagine punk-feminist icon Kathy Acker’s book of the same title. The book was written from 1978-1982 during the rise of Reagan republicanism and the emergence of punk rock. In Parnes’ interpretation, each video-chapter presents a typical scene in the life of Janie bracketed by US news events from the time period in which the book was written. These events saturate the character’s daily experience, informing her adolescent, nihilistic worldview and her desire for rebellion. As the viewer looks back at pivotal historical events (Jonestown Massacre, Moral Majority, Three Mile Island etc.) connections are drawn in relation to our current political situation. From the fashions to the oil crises to the religious fanaticism, the times seem interchangeable.
ART AMSTERDAM
Solo-presentation with Folkert de Jong in the ART Amsterdam Prize 2004 booth
Grouppresentation with Cristian Andersen, Marc Bijl, Folkert de Jong, Jan Kempenaers
