Metropolitans 2012> 2016
Introduction This book contains a serie of artworks from period 2012 till 2016, This series is about daily life, which seems totally absorbed with feasibility and the attempts to escape from it. The paintings are slightly inspired on apocalyptic philosophies but in my scenario you’re never sure it’s a pleasant trip or not.
This book contains works from the series that I started in 2012. I am working on this theme for a few years now and I will probably work on it for a few years more. This theme seems more contemporary than ever because our globalising world is rapidly changing. Large numbers of people adrift, the geo- politic and politic scenery is shifting and the Internet has a great impact on our way of thinking and how we express our selves. My series reflects mostly my personal interpretation on this zeitgeist. Alyssa Koycak , my ex intern, came to me with a media design task for her current education. She asked me weather I could provide her with a graphic assignment. We considered a few options and chose to present my series Metropolitans in a digital booklet. I think that Alyssa succeeded very well! I hope you’ll enjoy the book.
About me I have been working as an independent visual artist since 1994 I am an autonomic artist with a background in graphic design. Over time I developed into a multi-disciplinary artist. A distinctive feature in my work as an artist is the human body in al its shapes , forms and behavioural aspects. My art is often a personal reflection of social issues and current affairs but I’m also inspired by daily scenes, platitudes and the absurdities of human behaviour. Although my art is highly aestetical; it also contains distressing elements that evoke a feeling of uneasiness. This contradiction is a recurring theme in my art works Do you really see what is shown? I am not an innovator in the broadest sense of the word, but the process of developing and reinventing is reflected in my work. Next to my work as an independent artist, I create and participate in community art projects and educational art projects. I also design for non-profit organisations, private clients and commercial companies. Be sides I’m also an art coach and a participating member of the visual arts committee in Zwolle However there’s a clear line between autonomous (no consessions) and working in assignment (what’s the demand), I like to play with the limited framework aswell as working with no boundries
Metropolitans 2012 > 2016 In 2013 I started with a series that is named Metropolitans, later on. It is about the urban inhabitant unattached to his environment and at the same time he or she is totally absorbed by it. He or she obeys her own nature and breaks with nature and natural laws. Initially only people were the subject of my paintings but currently also animals are represented. The beast is much closer to it’s nature and instinct, it needs space and to be free. The animals in my paintings seems totally lost and out of place. They did not choose to be were they are but are submerged and enclosed by a continuous emerging and expanding urbanisation. They have to deal with the pieces we left for them. While we, the people can resist to societies straight jackets they have no choice than instinctively survive. For me that is an interesting paradox. If you set aside this larger theme this also refers to myself and my need of space not only physical space per se, but also mostly spiritual space. Trough this series I try to give way to my personal search to essence, true meaning. It is not to do about enlarged and exploding ego’s we see day to day but about the intrinsic, the vulnerable and the humane. I see us modern people sometimes as prisoners of conventions and rules within which we have to function. The world is getting more complex and demanding and the longing for clarity, simplicity and freedom is only growing.
2016 2015 2014 2013 2012
Hooked
Acrylics on canvas H 100 cm / B 150 cm
Two fish are swimming and twirling gracefully around in an otherwise abstract surrounding. They seemed caught in a surreal film and must avoid a threatening hook. In the background a small crowd is standing before what looks like a giant screen, but they do not pay any attention to it because they’re submerged in their own screens. They are there without actually being there mentally. Between the screens the battle for attention is only just started and they are wondering which topic will get the most likes the fastest.
2016 2015 Submerged
Acrylics on canvas H 100 cm / B 150 cm The fish in my painting represent lost creatures that are evidently out of place, like a fish out of water. The counter idea of this painting is that we all will probably submerge with the ocean again, sooner or later.
2014 2013 2012
2016 2015 2014 2013 2012
Concrete Jungle 2.0 Acrylics on canvas H 100 cm / B 150 cm
The human scale, man versus his environment. Where does nature go when mankind is claiming more and more urban and rural space? Animals do adept to whatever the circumstances are. But it takes time, generations to become properly equipped to the new situation. Some animals adept so well to man shaped society that they are regular urban inhabitants. The pigeons, herons, and mice for instant they actually flourish in between the concrete jungle. In this painting you see 3 floating deer like animals. They seem lost in space, weightless and hanging upside down. They look trapped, but if you look a little closer you see breaches in the wall.
2016
Sweet Dreams Acrylics on canvas H 100 cm / B 150 cm
Calm before the storm. Being in a sweet snooze while tribulations swiftly approaches silently. Not custom to the harsh reality it’s most certainly appealing to dream on.
2015 2014 2013 2012
2016
2015 2014 2013 2012
Inconvenient
Acrylics on canvas H 100 cm / B 70 cm
Although most of us, in the wealthy and democratic parts of the world, think we are free of mind, free to move and free to act, as we desire, I question this. Slavery is fortunately something that belongs to the past for most, unfortunately something real in current times for those without choices. In my opinion we, the fortuned, are often slaved without realising it. We are slaved by the social (media) pressure to be noticed, we have a constant hunger for new ways to communicate. (huge queues for new I phones, as if our lives are depending on it)) The global companies and the social networks rule and therefore make you inferior to them and their products. The lust for more, more money, more status, more likes, more fuel s and more meat for our muscles can make us weak and ill motivated creatures. There is no need; we could do well with little less. Inconvenient.
2016 Metropolieten (Metropolitans) Acrylics on canvas H 200 cm / B 100 cm
The bare figure in this image stands for sincerity, honesty and vulnerability. A naked person, in the centre of grotesque buildings, is screaming out loud, it wants out of his anguish. The buildings itself are, from the perspective of the viewer, less intimidating than the person on the foreground. Furthermore the image leaves room for interpretation and could be linked to current affairs, ‌. what ever comes across on the 6 o clock news?
2015 2014 2013 2012
2016
2015 2014 2013 2012
L’histoire se Répète, Répète Acrylics on canvas H 200 cm / B 100 cm
Some classic male figures and a few contemporary men are standing and lying next to each other. Not sure what they are up to but it probably involves some kind of struggle. In a Machiavellian, monkey’s on rocks, dominated world, war and disputes are in the end all about which lords are being served and who’s getting the girl. Society changes, but this will always be the same.
2016 The Concealed and Naked Truth/ dyptich Artprint op gelaminated foam H 180 cm / B 165 cm
A philosophical approach on religion, the eternal battle between believe, disbelieve and religions bilateral. It’s an internal struggle in the minds and hearts of people and physical encounters seems a matter of live and death. People are searching the sole truth because it provides support and a framework for greater scheme of things. But why does it inflict it selves so often? The truth is absolute or isn’t it? Religion is filled with devious doubts and insecurities. Who or what should you believe anyway?
2015 2014 2013 2012
2016 2015
2014 2013 2012
Last GateKeeper of Lost Revolutions Acrylics on canvas H 100 cm / B 150 cm
Human litter, plastic waste in combination with an open and natural environment filled with orphaned or ultra liberated figures. The interplay of light is a bit alienating. There is something heroic to the floating female figures.
2016
Human Interface Artprint H 100 cm / B 70 cm
Human Interf@ce is a ironic comment on everyday use of social media. Sharing data with everyone without any form of serious criticism. The comfort, vanity and social pressure seem to weight heavier than personal privacy and integrity. Data is the future gold! And big data companies are the new miners!
2015
2014 2013 2012
2016 2015
2014 2013 2012
Chairmen
Mixed media: print, stoel, verf, lijm. Chairmen are not about one enlightened spirit but about several great minds. The portraits that I used are originated from an earlier art project of mine ‘ ‘Mind Your Steps’* 2009. At the time the images of the iconic figures were chosen and graphical processed because they were free of mind and controversial. A great mind is not always of unspoken behaviour but they made big changes political, socially, artistically or scientifically. The tree men shown here are my three graces: Analyze (Freud), Change (Malcolm X) & Realize (Picasso)
2016 2015 (R)evolve(R)
Acrylics on canvas H 100 cm / B 150 cm Dynamic boy figure is tumbling trough a concrete world. He is revolving but is he evolving?
2014 2013 2012
2016 2015
2014
Yes, We’re Open H 100 cm / B 70 cm
The symbolic ‘open mind’ invites the unknown
2013 2012
2016 2015 Fly Me To The Moon Acrylics on canvas H 100 cm / B 150 cm
Boy in flying motion, escaping urban society. Stand for the desire to be a true individual in a world where the masses rule! But also a link to current affairs cannot be denied.
2014
2013 2012
2016 2015 2014
2013 2012
Confusion
Acrylics on canvas H 100 cm / B 150 cm
Dazzled & disoriented. Overrunned by the speed of life, overlooked, too small, too vain, too debatable. The signs want to be read & understood but they are not acknowledged at all, there a too many of them.
2016 Breaking Waves
2015
Acrylics on canvas H 100 cm / B 150 cm
We witness a clutter of running people in mayhem. Is it a window of opportunity they are running to or do we get a glimpse of a disordered world they’re running from. It is this sensation of unease that gives this artwork a certain sense of being ‘on edge’. The image is inspired and extracted from a filmstill of the movie Jaws but it probably reminds us of something else.
2014
2013 2012
2016 2015 2014
Original Thoughts Acrylics on canvas H 100 cm / B 150 cm
Painters hanging besides a red wall painting the words’ Original thoughts’
2013
2012
colofon: Design/Layout: Alyssa Kocak Paintings and text: Marit Otto In assignment of: Opleiding Mediavormgeving/ROC Aventus, Apeldoorn Year: 2016 (2017)
Marit Otto www.maritotto.nl maoatelier007@gmail.com info@maritotto.nl 06 20661723