The exhibition VERS brings together work from three upcoming artists: Babette Bervoets, Liesbeth Piena, and Dominique Zwartelé. All three graduated last summer, respectively, at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, ArtEZ in Arnhem and the Gerrit Rietveld Academy. Working from different backgrounds and sources of inspiration, they each make work that can be characterized as colourful, exciting, and fresh. Within this exhibition, paintings and drawings are combined with sound sculptures; grand and wild gestures go hand in hand with precise and concentrated details; and the world around us is looked at both with a sense of humour and gravity. The exhibition thus shines a cheerful yet serious light on contemporary society and what art has to offer within it.
Babette Bervoets studied Fine Arts at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy (DOGtime) in Amsterdam. She is interested in perception (seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, tasting) which, according to her, is a subjective and social process of ‘meaning giving’ in which experiences, beliefs, and rituals play an important role. Her work, that consists of drawings, paintings, and objects, is a translation of this process: already existing meanings are re-interpreted, weakened, and de-stabilized to make room for new, meaning-giving, perceptions. Her project Vases, of which this exhibition shows several works, arose in response to a ten years old drawing of a vase and gradually grew into a series of wide-ranging interpretations.
Liesbeth Piena studied Graphic Design at ArtEZ in Arnhem and graduated from Fine Art Painting at ArtEZ in Enschede (AKI) this summer. Liesbeth makes her paintings by looking closely at her surroundings. She looks at shapes, colours, structures, and shadows and distills from reality what interests her. This is how she creates almost abstract images, each of which also depicts a whole new reality. By working layer upon layer these images come into existence on the canvas. The works on display during this exhibition were made during the past two months and find their origin in the houseplant Calathea Lancifolia.
Dominique Zwartelé has a background as a professional (bas)clarinetist. After graduating from the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, she played with the Dutch Ballet Orchestra and traveled around the world with the theater company Het Filiaal. The need to explore her creative freedom led her draw and make objects. Last summer she finished her Fine Arts studies at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy (DOGtime) in Amsterdam. An important theme in her work is the identity of contemporary urban cultures. She finds her starting points in materials, sounds, languages, symbols, and rituals, which she re-contextualizes. For her graduation, she made an Opera for Objects, a sound installation with sculptures and drawings, parts of which are also on display during the current exhibition.
