Previous Exhibitions
Martijn den Ouden
About the Exhibition:
' Experiment & Explore '
With this exhibition, Martijn den Ouden declares war on the ambivalent art movement 'Futurism', which glorified industrial progress and even war. At the same time, numerous mythical visions of a new world were depicted during this period and one of the motivations of futurism Umberto Boccioni was:
“No fear is more stupid than the shudder that comes over us to cross the boundaries of the art direction in which we work. Painting, sculpture, music, literature do not exist. Only the act of creation exists.”
Martijn, with his indomitable urge to create, can agree with this and he partly experiments on the spot and works on portraits of children treading water in abstract urban scenes and themes such as disintegration. In this way he reveals his own mythical visions and sheds light on the contemporary progress of the world.
About Futurism:
Futurism (Italian: Futurismo) was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy, and to a lesser extent in other countries, in the early 20th century. It emphasized dynamism, speed, technology, youth, violence, and objects such as the car, the airplane, and the industrial city.
Martijn den Ouden (Nieuw-Lekkerland, 1983) is a Dutch poet and visual artist. He was born as a preacher's son in Nieuw-Lekkerland. In 2009 Den Ouden graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, where he studied Image and Language (Beeld en Taal).
In 2010 his debut Melktanden was published by Em. Querido, according to the Poetry Club Foundation "The most fascinating debut of the year".
His second collection, The promised Tuesday, followed in 2013. In the same year, visual work by Den Ouden was also published in HP//de Tijd. A new book is in the works (2016).
Martijn works with various media, during ‘experiment and explore’ exhibition we will organize an ‘Art Night’ with a masterclass on exploring our creative side - so we can find our artistic style, with a lesson on remaking a classic/famous painting with a totally new style - of your choosing.
