PRESS RELEASE / PERSBERICHT

Aldwin van de Ven

‘Move me to Happiness’, new paintings, drawings and sculptures

Sept 5 – Oct 17 2009

preview Friday Sept. 4  13.00 – 17.00h

opening Saturday Sept. 5  17.00 – 19.00h

Mart House Gallery presents ‘Move me to Happiness’ the first solo exhibition from Aldwin van de Ven (1980 NL). Last year Van de Ven finished his Master degree at the Frank Mohr Institute in Groningen with an impressive show. This time in this solo exhibition he shows his new paintings, sculptures and drawings.

In his work he shows a threshold world. A world recognizable as ours, but at the same time withdrawing itself through the simplification of the set, the use of only a few colours and to some extent, the primitive manner of painting. Emptiness is clearly present in the paintings. The few elements, which form the set, seem to float there. The emptiness is the background, a space, or that which is unknown. In this way, his paintings sometimes seem like monochromes, in which the players and attributes are isolated.

Fragments of reality, dreams or memories are used to compose this world. This does not come without ups and downs. On the contrary, he frequently starts with a clear picture of what he wants. Through hesitations and rejections a surface arises where colours, structures and layers come into existence that could not be planned beforehand. At the same time this is a beautiful basis for his world. On this background it is possible that a casually found image, suddenly fits perfectly. For just over a year van de Ven had made sculptures besides his paintings. The set, which first only took place in the painting, now also carries itself forward into works shown within a space. Conspicuously there is a huge sculpture in the gallery, as if it is descending from one of his paintings.