Anne von Freyburg and Rinke Nijburg
From June 12 to July 10, 2022 under the title ‘Figure This’, works will be shown in Art Gallery O-68 in Velp, Gelderland by Anne von Freyburg, mixed-media works made up of a mixture of furniture, tapestry and fashion fabrics and by Rinke Nijburg: paintings, drawings and mixed media works.
‘Figure This’ stands for figuration, but also for decoding the image, both its layering and content. ‘Figure This’ expresses directness and fierceness, without generosity or mercy. The subjects and aesthetics in the work of these artists go against the good taste of contemporary art. Both artists reach back to art-historical scenes and then transform them to our time.
Anne von Freyburg (1979) investigates the decorative and use of textiles in painting. She translates paintings by old masters from the Rococo period into works made up of a mixture of furniture tapestry and fashion fabrics. This raises questions about taste, about clichés of female identity, about ideas on ‘high’ and ‘low’ art. Her work celebrates materiality and feminine sensuality, but also forms a commentary on excessive consumption and self-aggrandizement. This results in works that are somewhere between tapestry, sculpture and painting, where figures seem to hide behind a layer of glimmers and decoration. Anne holds an MA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths University London, is winner of the Robert Walters UK New Artist Award 2021 and was nominated for the 2021 Ingram Prize, among other prizes. Articles about her work can be found in ‘Create Magazine’, ‘Art Scope Magazine (US)’, ‘Artplugged UK’ en ‘Art Verge’.
Rinke Nijburg (1964) researches the existential fate that befell man: the consciousness of being an animal that does its best not to be an animal. Man tries to overcome this misfortune, in order to become a god or an ‘Übermensch’. In order to better understand this fate, Nijburg is looking for a way back to the origin of man, which is said to lie in Africa. In the search for the deepest motives of man, he encounters the best and the worst of the vain mammal. Occasionally a human manages to rise above theirself and all others and metamorphoses into a holy son or daughter of the god or gods. Unfortunately, most specimens of the species fail to do so and the development of compassion remains rudimentary. Some specimens of homo sapiens sapiens fail completely to tame the predator in themselves and degenerate into children of hell. The mammal that poses for the camera and tries to show ‘the best self’ to the others is the starting point for much of the artist’s recent work. Just like in everyday reality, it is not always immediately clear who managed to tame the beast and who did not. Nijburg received many prizes, including the Prix de Rome (1998). His work is represented in more than 30 collections in the Netherlands and abroad.