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.

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.