‘Wege in den Nihilismus’

and Mark Titchner

‘Be Not Content’

Upstream Gallery proudly presents a duo exhibition with new works of German artist Dennis Rudolph (Berlin, 1979) and the worldpremier of a videoinstallation of British artist Mark Titchner (Lutin, 1973).

Dennis Rudolph makes sinister landscapes and dramatic portraits in oil paint or graphics His landscapes can be related to the tradition of the symbolically charged Romantic landscape painting. Auratic sceneries, such as deserted landscapes, expansive skies, mountaintops or rocky coasts and gigantic towers are adjusted to the modern time by the insertion of a modern metropolis, electricity pylons and skies ripped by aeroplanes. But whereas the religious symbolism of for example Caspar David Friedrich’s landscapes can be deciphered, Rudolph’s secular landscapes remain silent and miss allegorical meaning. He appropriates the allegorical image as symbolic representation of universal conceptions of the world (be it mythological or religious). Rudolph reintegrates allegory and symbolism into contemporary art by disposing the image of its religious meaning.

Recently Rudolph developed a special ‘offset’ printing technique. Starting from studies about Wagners Ring des Nibelungen, the series of works in this exhibition culminates in the allegorical picture of Walter Benjamin’s Angel of History. Dennis Rudolph exalts the ninetheenth century Romantic landscape to a contemporary scene with a universal meaning.

In a separate room in the gallery the worldpremier of the 2 channel video installation ‘Be Not Content‘ 2011 by Mark Titchner is displayed. The moving black and white images and the disturbing atmosphere of this work can be related to  the work of Rudolph. Mark Titchner’s art explores the tensions between the different belief systems that inform society, be they religious, scientific or political. He focuses on marginalized, shameful or forgotten objects and ideologies on which we base our faith. Titchner gets his motives from the world of advertisment, religious iconography, club flyers, banners, political propaganda and other agencies vying for attention.

The common denominator of this search for idealism is the search for enlightenment, a desire for some form of transcendence. But abstracted from its original context, the message is stripped of it’s meaning. We know that we are asked to respond, but the goal is unclear. Leaving us behind with the formal means of encouragement and our personal desire for the knowledge of meaning.

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

Armen Eloyan

‘End of Summer, Beginning of Autumn’

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.

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.

UPCOMING: Cristobal Leon, Niles Atallah & Joaquin Cocina at Whitechapel Gallery London, from 14 Oct 

Opening: Saturday 14 May, 17.00 - 20.00

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.