ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

During the months of June and July, nine galleries of the Amsterdam Jordaan district will join forces for the second time to organize Nieuw Amsterdams Peil (N.A.P.) featuring work by Koen van den Broek. This year, the exhibition will be curated by Joost Declercq, director of the Belgian Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens and Charlotte Crevits, curator of Dhondt-Dhaenens. For this second edition, Declercq is selecting one artist per gallery, to be paired with one or two Belgian artist(s) not represented by a gallery in the Netherlands. Through coupling these artists, Declercq is putting them in the spotlights as well as providing the galleries with a link to foreign partners through international collaborations.

Artists exhibiting at Galerie Ron Mandos: Bouke de Vries (NL, 1960) Koen van den Broek (BE, 1973) Edith Dekyndt (BE, 1960)

Veracht den burgerman, doch ledig zijne kruiken. Despise the solid burgher, but drink deep from his flagon.

Participating galleries: andriesse ~ eyck gallery, Annet Gelink Gallery, Ellen de Bruijne Projects, GRIMM, Galerie Ron Mandos, Stigter Van Doesburg, tegenboschvanreden, Galerie Fons Welters, Martin van Zomeren

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About the artist: Koen van den Broek (guest artist)

The work of the Belgian painter Koen van den Broek (1973, Bree BE) draws heavily on the imagery found in America’s urban landscapes. The artist photographs a slice of reality, which he then transforms into a painting. The process of painting renders the image more abstract: details are accentuated, superfluous elements ignored, light and shadow heightened. Perspectival lines and planes of colour break free from photographed reality to create a new pictorial tension. The abstracted image is particularly radical in two series: Flock, and Bird. This strategy infuses his oeuvre with echoes of the American wasteland, as much as it references the work of painters like Henri Matisse, Clyfford Still and Franz Kline.

ABOUT Koen van den Broek

Koen van den Broek was born in 1973 in Bree, Belgium
He lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium

Born in 1973 in the Belgian town of Bree, Koen van den Broek first studied architecture and subsequently painting, initially at the Royal Academy of Antwerp and then at the Academy of Visual Arts of Breda. In his opinion, despite his painting studies, he has always remained an architect at heart. Ever since his student days, van den Broek has travelled constantly: around Europe, to the USA, Mexico and even to Korea. Always with his camera close to hand. He takes photos, a lot of photos, which all depict the same subject: the architectural interventions of man on the landscape.

Early in his career, Koen van den Broek developed a fascination for desolate landscapes in which man rarely appears, but always makes his presence felt. He depicts the traces left behind on roads, streets and houses that have been abandoned. The artist’s perception of roads and borders in barren lands has provided the painter with impulses that enable him to make his specific statement on landscape painting. Van den Broek operates by turning his face downwards and zooming in on the irregularities of the pavement, on curb stones and shadows. It is this very search for a subject of representation that led the artist on a journey closer to abstraction.

Works by Koen van den Broek are part of major public collections, including the LACMA, Los Angeles; SMAK, Ghent; M HKA, Antwerp; Busan Museum of Art, Busan; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle. His work has been presented at the Venice Biennial (2015 & 2017); White Cube, London; Kunstmuseum, Bonn; Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Antwerp and Brussels; Seoul Arts Centre, Seoul; Kunsthalle, Mannheim; Royal Academy, London; MAS, Antwerp, and Kunsthal, Rotterdam; His work can also be found in numerous public spaces in Belgium, such as the Hofkamer, Antwerp; ‘t Zilte, MAS, Antwerp; AZSM Hospital, Mechelen, and the Provinciehuis, Hasselt.

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