From 13 March to 30 April 2022, the gallery will present a solo show with a selection of unique photographs (and the presentation of the book Florilegium) by the renowned Dutch artist Danielle Kwaaitaal.

‘Florilegium, Ultraviolet and Zephyr’ invite the visitor to step into the almost audible silence, to feel the delicacy of the flowers, and to experience the colour spectrum of the vases. The selection featured in the exhibition reflects the sensitivity of photographer Danielle Kwaaitaal.

FLORIGELIUM SERIES
Between the end of 2017 and the end of 2018, Danielle Kwaaitaal photographed about seventy Dutch flowers. From the start she had a name for the series: Florilegium – literally a reading or gathering of flowers, a pictorial genre already known in antiquity, but blossoming from the Middle Ages onward and especially in the Dutch so-called Golden Age. Higher clerics, and later noblemen and wealthy merchants wanting to show off their wealth, had professional draughtsmen and painters to draw and colour the finest flowers, to be displayed in beautiful and precious books. The attention she focuses on her subjects resembles the precision with which her illustrious predecessors pictured their plants. The big difference between yesterday and today are the tools in the hands of the artist.

In a graceful way, Kwaaitaal’s Florilegium invites the visitor to become a reader of this wordless anthology of poetry in pictures. Each reading brings new discoveries.

ULTRAVIOLET & ZEPHYR SERIES
In its new underwater series Ultraviolet (2020) & Zephyr (2021), Kwaaitaal takes a completely new artistic direction. Flowers have given way to glass vases and ceramic jars – in reference of course to Giorgio Morandi, who painted pots and pitchers and vases in Bologna all his life. She focuses on the choice of shapes and contours of the objects, and then on the choice of materials; transparent or solid. Subtle shades of light and dark, translucent and opaque can be felt. These works are created with a true painter’s eye. With Ultraviolet & Zephyr, Kwaaitaal seems to be moving further and further away from his original medium, photography. Perhaps this is why many consider this series to be an important moment in his artistic development, his Magnum Opus.

Despite the historical references, the approach is resolutely contemporary in technique and the tools. Danielle Kwaaitaal uses an ‘underwater’ studio to produce her work, filling it to the brim with several litres of water and then adding ink into it. Ink gives the image a non-photographic depth of field. To transmit the pulsating light, she has developed a special computer technique to reverse the light and dark areas to make the object glow in the dark. Resulting in a wonderful effect that can be seen on her flowers, among others; the light seems not to come from outside, but seems to emanate from within.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Danielle Kwaaitaal (1964, Bussum | NL) graduated from the Bijenvelt Fashion Academy in Amsterdam in 1987 and from the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam in 1991. She is one of the pioneers in the field of Dutch video art. In 1994, together with Micha Klein and Ariel Zachor (R.E.L.), she founded Technocreations, which was at the beginning of a spectacular new phenomenon: the veejay!

With her graduation project Bodyscapes, she was way ahead of her time. Kwaaitaal, who has been experimenting with the computer program Paintbox since the 1980s, is a pioneer in the field of digitally manipulated photography. Her project certainly did not go unnoticed, as the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam immediately purchased a work from the series.

www.daniellekwaaitaal.com

OPENING HOURS
Thursday 11am – 6 pm
Friday 11am – 6 pm
Saturday 11am – 6 pm