Maaike Schoorel - ‘Zelfportretten & Stillevens’

Maaike Schoorel - ‘Zelfportretten & Stillevens’

NL-The Dutch Cultural Pop-Up Space in London is pleased to announce ‘Zelfportretten & Stillevens’, a solo project by Maaike Schoorel. Curated by Ken Pratt.

Maaike Schoorel’s work inhabits a position on the edge of legibility. Her figurative paintings appear faded or bleached with brush strokes that suggest outlines and restrained marks that imply areas of colour or shadow. The viewer must participate in the paintings, the works demand ones perception to be slowed down to allow the images to unravel slowly over time.

Schoorel uses photographs of family, friends and herself as sources of reference and inspiration for her work, as well as depicting other familiar scenes and still life that allude to the history of her chosen medium. The various painting genres that she employs help to structure her practice.

After selecting and cropping her photographs Schoorel renders the subject matter almost invisible. Through an unevenly applied process of subtle and minimally painted layers she wears away the original image to reveal something new. This complex reworking, or even withholding, of her source material intensifies the process of looking, and reminds us that seeing is as much about what cannot be seen as what can.
 
Maaike Schoorel’s work is currently being shown as part of British Art Show 7, a Hayward Touring Exhibition in Nottingham, Hayward Gallery, London, Glasgow and Plymouth and in ‘The Saatchi Gallery in Adelaide: British Art Now’ at The Art Gallery of South Australia. She will shortly open a solo exhibition at Marc Foxx, Los Angeles. Her work will also be included in the forthcoming exhibition ‘Painting Between the Lines’ at CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art, California College of the Arts, San Francisco and in a group exhibition at Dordrechts Museum, Dordrecht. In 2012 she will have solo exhibitions at The Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem and at Maureen Paley, London and her work will be included in the exhibition ‘Invisible Ink’ at Mendes Wood, Sao Paolo, curated by Carolyn Drake.

Recent solo exhibitions of her work include Galerie Diana Stigter, Amsterdam, 2011; ‘Nudes and Garden’, Marc Foxx, Los Angeles, 2009; ‘Nudes’, Maureen Paley, London, 2008 and ‘Album,’ Museum de Hallen, Haarlem, 2008. Recent group exhibitions include ‘Newspeak’, Saatchi Gallery, London, 2010; ‘Visible Invisible: Against the Security of the Real’, Parasol Unit, London, 2009; ‘Eyes Wide Open – New to the Collection’, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 2008; ‘Nonknowledge’, Projects Art Centre, Dublin, 2008; ‘How to Endure’, curated by Tom Morton, ‘Athens Biennial’, Athens, 2007; ‘Very Abstract and Hyper Figurative’, curated by Jens Hoffmann, Thomas Dane Gallery, London, 2007; ‘Just in time’, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 2006; ‘Le Nouveau Siècle’, curated by Xander Karskens, Museum van Loon, Amsterdam, 2006; ‘Vincent van Gogh and Expressionism’, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, 2006.
  
Maaike Schoorel is represented by Maureen Paley, London and Galerie Diana Stigter, Amsterdam, and Marc Foxx, Los Angeles

Coinciding with the annual London art fair period, the exhibition will be open for extended hours and The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands will host a reception for the exhibition.

Thus, in addition to the regular opening hours, the space will be open to visitors on Sunday 16 October 2010 from 12:00 until 17:00.

The reception will take place on Friday 14 October 2010 from 18:00 until 21:00.

Those wishing to attend are requested to RSVP to info@nlpopup.co.uk in order to help with planning arrangements.

The project ‘Zelfportretten & Stillevens’ has been made possible through the generous loan of works from a number of collections. In particular, we would like to thank Hugo & Carla Brown, The Hague; The Rabobank Art Collection, Amsterdam andColeção Teixeira de Freitas, Lisbon for making the project possible.

NL- The Dutch Cultural Pop-Up Space would also like to thank Rocket Gallery, London for its loan of twentieth century Dutch furniture for the realisation of the project.

For press, high-resolution images or other queries, please see email info@nlpopup.co.uk