 |
| Elly Strik & Universal String • Lena Ghio, 2018 |
TO ALL THE LONG GONE DARLINGS. AND TO YOU
Elly Strik is a Dutch artist born in The Hague in 1961. This spring, Director and Chief curator of La Poste 1700, Isabelle De Mévius, thought it was a good time to highlight the power of drawings. We live in a time of great technological innovations but there is something decidedly magical about art done with the hands. On the first full day of spring, I headed to La Poste 1700, to find out more about this artist who now teaches at The Royal Academy of Art, The Hague.
A very relaxed and intuitive person, Elly Strik is very easy to converse with. I wanted to know about her process and her points of interest. She uses philosophical and intellectual research on great men who have particularly marked our civilizations. In this exhibition, two great researchers stand out: Sigmund Freud and Charles Darwin. She is also influenced by artists such as Vincent Van Gogh Marcel Duchamp and Edvard Munch. When the influence of these men onto the inspiration of the artist come together it manifests in undulating drawings of dreamlike landscapes, portraits or intimate living spaces.
There is a mystical aura to the exhibition that the artist designed herself. When you walk into the gallery you face three rows, each telling a unique story, each leading to a distinct conclusion. Elly recommends that each visitor choose their own starting point. This simple design permits visitors to have individualistic experiences with the works.
The strength of the exhibition is the other worldly aura that overtakes the space and our awareness. The drawings vary in size, texture, concern but all return to the intuitive approach of the artist to art and to the assimilation and understanding of knowledge via a luminous sixth sense.
A beautifully illustrated catalogue of the exhibition with text by Isabelle De Mévius is available at the gallery.
-LENA GHIO
No comments:
Post a Comment