Frank Taal Gallery proudly presents Gerbel Mulder, Stephan J. Shanabrook and Daan den Houter at ART ROTTERDAM booth 54, 8-11 February 2018.

Gerben Mulder (NYC)

Throughout his career, Mulder has developed a body of work that establishes a dialogue with a tradition of European painting, which spans from Velázquez’s children to the distorted figures of Edward Munch. With an iridescent palette, his portraits, his flowers vases and still-life paintings emphasize psychological aspects (melancholy and euphoria) and a subjective dimension of the images. New York Times art critic Roberta Smith situates this most recent production in the gap between Raoul Dufy and Jackson Pollock. That is, between an essentially figurative painting with traditional themes on the one hand, and abstract expressionism on the other. His new works radically emphasize the materiality of painting, being conceived in a physical way. The gesture is strikingly wide, quick, and omnipresent. The spiral brush strokes, graphic-like, retro modernist mark-making bring a contemporary edge to this genre.

Stephan J. Shanabrook

Stephen j Shanabrook new sculptures are reflections on emotional deconstructs, a dissected reality presented with dark humor. The artist uses mixed media but mostly found plastic, material, which is a symbolic fossil of contemporary society. Like in “Drunk and Pregnant”, sculptural portrait of a pregnancy gone wrong, of distorted representations of guts resembling Philip Guston painting.

Daan den Houter

For Art Rotterdam Daan den Houter created Keep On Dreaming 2018

‘Keep On Dreaming 2018’

Concrete, copper, 20 notes of € 500,-

A work about expectations and illusion,
a work about the future and dreams,
a work about individuality and togetherness, a work about destruction and power.

A series of 17 black concrete cubes with dimensions of 13 cm x 13 cm x 13 cm. Each cube includes an engraved signature of the artist, the title and the unique cube number from 1-17. In one of the 17 cubes, there’s a copper tube containing € 10.000,-. All 16 other cubes hold a copper tube containing fake money with no notable value. For € 1.700,- one can purchase one of these cubes, and become co-owner of the whole work ‘Keep On Dreaming 2018’. Protected by the copyright of the artist, and the collective purchase of a dream, one can’t destroy the cube without risking legal prosecution by the artist or one of the other owners.

This artwork is about the dream that you have € 10.000, - within reach, trapped in concrete, touchable and yet unattainable. This dream is shared and kept alive by all owners together. What is more valuable than an illusion! “Keep on dreaming!”

Making of Keep On Dreaming 2018

The last decade Daan den Houter has invariably managed to put his growing group of admirers on the wrong track. He has an unerring sense of aesthetics, which ensures the first draft of attention and keeps it there. But primarily Den Houter is a conceptual artist. The layers of his art functions like a slight slope - while the spectator at first finds himself staggering, subsequently he regains his balance.
To activate the viewers thinking about important topics like money, identity and values, Den Houter processes humour and sometimes cynicism in his images. The multidisciplinarity of his work shows how much the actual appearance is subordinate to the concept. Not the perfect picture, but the conceptual elaboration is always the starting point of his work.
His work controls and manipulates. Confusion and disturbance is what is left. And maybe eventually a new insight is adopted in the way we assume certain things to be true.

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Art Rotterdam 2018

Van Nelle Fabriek | Van Nelleweg 1 | 3044 BC | Rotterdam
Thursday Feb 8, 11.00 - 19.00 hrs
Friday Feb 9, 11.00 - 21.00 hrs
Saturday Feb 10, 11.00 - 19.00 hrs
Sunday Feb 11, 11.00 - 19.00 hrs
Entrance fee € 19,50 | online tickets € 16,50 | free entrance for children under the age of 12