At the core of Frank Ammerlaan’s practice lies desire to capture the constant flux of our reality that goes beyond individual lives and knowledges and equally pertains to eternal processes on the cosmic scale. This vision is cultivated by using unconventional materials ranging from dirt and dust to (liquid) metals, chemicals, and meteorite particles which give his practice their complex and nuanced structures, often made in collaboration with scientists and chemists. Ammerlaan can be seen as a contemporary alchemist, where his medium is researching perception, the boundaries of painting, and unpredictable processes. His medium is the world’s physical matter, excavated from the ground or fallen down from the sky.
‘I see my works as objects of measurement where materiality is a tool to describe the world. Matter is not an anonymous bystander, nor a passive agent, but rather a dynamic and evolutionary creature that transforms, mutates and deteriorates.’
Abridged version of dr Malgorzata Misniakiewicz’ essay ‘BODY ARMOR’:
Frank Ammerlaan (1979) is based in Berlin. He graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam in 2007 and in 2012 from his Masters at the Royal College of Art in London. Ammerlaan was awarded the Royal Award for Painting in 2012, which is handed to the most promising young Dutch painter of that year. Other prizes he won include the Scheffer Prize (2013), the Land Securities Prize Royal College of Art, the Doha Studio Art Prize (all 2012) and the Gerrit Rietveld Academy Painting Prize (2007). Ammerlaan has had solo exhibitions at the Dordrechts Museum, Museo d’Arte Conteporanea Calasetta and at several international galleries like Simões de Assis Art in Brazil. His work has been included in a number of group exhibitions in and outside of the Netherlands, at places such as White Cube Gallery London, Oscar Niemeyer Museum Brazil, The Royal Palace in Amsterdam KUMU Art Museum, in Tallinn, Museum Catharijneconvent in Utrecht, Kunsthal in Rotterdam and NEST in The Hague. Ammerlaan’s work is part of leading private and corporate art collections and museums such as Centraal Museum Utrecht, Kunstmuseum Den Haag, Museum Voorlinden and Stedelijk Museum Schiedam.
Latest exhibition: Guardians
Vibrant and dynamic, matter is alive; a physical embodiment of knowledge. It is the fabric of our world, our order of complexity from where thought, activity and form erupt. Similarly, Ammerlaan’s use of materiality crafts a bridge between form and idea— creating a pathway that goes beyond pure abstraction to engage with the wider world.
Vibrant and dynamic, matter is alive; a physical embodiment of knowledge. It is the fabric of our world, our order Similarly, Ammerlaan’s use of materiality crafts a bridge between form and idea—creating a pathway that goes
This specific artwork is made out of lead. This is what the artist says about the leading material of this work (translated
“Lead was not born as lead. Lead was born as uranium. So in the explosion of a star, a supernova, uranium
So you could say that lead in its presence, how it is used for example in a nuclear context or a medical context protector against its former self. I think that’s a very nice starting point to see if you can’t do something with that
Guardian 1, 2024
Lead, styrofoam, epoxy on plywood
150 x 200 x 20 cm
order of complexity from where thought, activity and form erupt. goes beyond pure abstraction to engage with the wider world.
(translated quote from the interview with Robert Altena): is created and over a million years it decays into lead.
context as an apron against radiation, is actually transformed into the that material as an artist.” - Frank Ammerlaan
Untitled (Patchwork Paintings), 2024
Dust, dirt, meteorite particles, on oxidised cotton and linen
165 x 135 cm
3x unique artwork
Untitled, 2024 Pigment particles on canvas
160 x 130 cm
Chemicals on Canvas
In contrast to the emphasis on geometry and patterns found in other pieces of the artist, Ammerlaan relinquishes such control in his “chemicals on canvas” series. Following extensive research in collaboration with chemists, Ammerlaan manages to capture an urban phenomenon: oil stains visible through the right light on a rainy day. Here the artist coats canvases with black acrylic paint before submerging them in a bath of water infused with an undisclosed concoction of chemicals. The result is a mesmerizing holographic and iridescent colour effect—shimmering and alluring as it emerges from the depths of the black surface. While visually stunning, these paintings also serve as a poignant reminder of the polluting and toxic nature of the oil spills they represent.
2022 Chemicals on canvas 150 x 120 cm
Untitled,
BODY ARMOR
An object that gives in is actually stronger than one that resists.
BODY ARMOR is Frank Ammerlaan’s fourth solo exhibition at Upstream Gallery. Since his last exhibition Particles of Dust in 2017 Ammerlaan’s chief medium became the world’s physical matter, excavated from the ground or fallen down from the sky.
The exhibition title borrows its name from a series of Ammerlaan’s leadworks, realised in a material that is contaminated with meaning, poisonous and alchemical. Lead, used as protection from radiation in hospitals and nuclear power plants, chemically is the end result of millions of years of decay of the unstable Uranium element.
‘I see my works as objects of measurement where materiality is a tool to describe the world. Matter is not an anonymous bystander, nor a passive agent, but rather a dynamic and evolutionary creature that transforms, mutates and deteriorates. It creates spherical forms and circular patterns that are deeply interwoven into the fabric of our lives within the cosmos. It uncovers an overwhelming sense of geometry which in turn is shaped by the weight of all existing matter, forged and arranged in an orderly system.’
80 x 65 x 6,5 cm
Untitled (Body Armor Series), 2020 Lead
Untitled, 2020 Lead
Particles of Dust
A paradigm shift took place since these works by Frank Ammerlaan. Instead of just observing our own planet, Ammerlaan has changed his perspective here from horizontal to vertical. Perception has always been important to Ammerlaan: he turned his attention outside the very center of the gaze. By focusing his view upward, he now explores a new kind of peripheral vision.
With pulverised metals and meteorites the artist creates powderlike and complex geometric patterns. The cosmic material dates from the early times of our solar system: it is by far the oldest material to be found on earth. Scientists consider it as the vital source of the organic compounds that gave rise to life on earth.
Particles of Dust, 2017 Dust, dirt, meteorite particles, iron particles and iron powders on canvas, linnen and jute 170 x 375 cm
Cycles, 2017
Dust, dirt, meteorite particles on linen
185 x 250 cm
Periodic
Untitled, 2017
Dust, dirt, embroidery on jute, canvas and linen
150 x 130 cm
75
Anechoic #2, 2017
Metal particles on canvas
x 60 cm
Oil paintings and Oil and Thread Paintings
Ammerlaan’s large, dark oil paintings bear subtle looming color spots embroided with shiny, fluorescent threads. The shift between figure and ground in the work runs parallel with the development between central to periphery, the thread plays an active protagonist that structures this painted ground. The fragile and trembling strings pick up the sunlight in daytime and the changing electric lights at dusk, the work vibrates slowly like an Aeolian harp, set to play by the changes of the wind outside. The geometrical patterns of thread create a permeable fence, like a web or weave able to get stuck in - or hold on to. These works behave as an illuminating and seductive omen but curdle into a form of dilemma.
Untitled, 2014 Oil and thread on canvas, 150 x 130 cm
Untitled, 2014 Oil and thread on canvas, 65 x 50 cm
70 x 55 cm
Untitled, 2016 Oil and thread on canvas
Stigmata
The large-scale diptych painting titled Stigmata has a rich, deep, almost ethereal quality of surface similarity of form. Under close inspection it becomes apparent that one of the paintings is in fact re-enactment, each stage of the first act recorded, copied and re-made. Revealing evidence notion of pure expression is undermined.
surface and yet presents an uncanny fact a copy of the other, a step-by-step of a strict and rational process, the
Stigmata, 2014
Oil on canvas, 2 x 255 x 185 cm
Untitled, 2014 Oil on canvas, 155 x 135 cm
Passivated
zinc objects
The metal components of these sculptures have been trough an industrial electroplating process. Each reflective sheet of conductive material has been immersed into 20 different baths, normally used to preserve the material from corroding and only applied to small parts such as screws with a hidden or peripheral function. As a side effect, this treatment delivers an unpredictable and multicolored patina that usually stays unnoticed.
, 2015 Passivated zinc on metal, 94 x 94 cm
Untitled
Untitled, 2014 Colour passivated zinc on steel, 140 x 120 cm
Untitled, 2014
Colour passivated zinc on steel, 140 x 140 cm
Installation view of the exhibition Faith by Proxy (2015) at Upstream Gallery Amsterdam
Moonless, 2016
Installation view at Bosse & Baum
Untitled, 2012
Chemicals on canvas, 290 x 200 cm
Chemicals on canvas (first series)
These paintings, that Ammerlaan started to make in 2012 are made with chemicals. Having done research for a number of years with chemists and scientists he physicalized the phenomenal aesthetics of the organic colour arrangements - visible on an urban rainy day - in the form of oil spills. The result is extremely detailed, holographic but toxic, and becomes noxious in its contemporary political context.
Untitled, 2012 Chemicals on canvas, 290 x 200 cm
Installation view of the exhibition Day’s End (2012) at Upstream Gallery Amsterdam
Faith by Proxy
This 2-channel video work named ‘Faith by Proxy’ shows material the artist shot in countries like Italy, Russia and Brazil. Combined with found footage from different international news outlets, the video juxtaposes images of political and religious convictions and reforments. Pervading through the video, a dichotomy of different communities with their own condemnation and conflicts is portrayed.
Faith by Proxy, 2015
Video, 14:55 min
Reforming Intervals
Ammerlaan shot the material for Reforming Intervals in Russia. The video juxtaposes scenes of political protests and scenes in Orthodox monasteries and churches, such as Rizopolozhensky monastery in Suzdal, started in 1207 and known as the oldest active monastery in Russia. The video positions the viewer as an unwitting voyeur, caught in the middle of private rituals and actions of conflicting ideologies and authorities. The film’s powerful representation of different ideas of conviction questions the notion of belief: the belief in faith on the one hand, and on the other the belief in reason. Not supported by spoken word or dialogue, the emphasis lies on the kinship of imagery and sound.
