don’t make art on the internet, that will never work don’t show websites in museums, they belong online don’t make gallery objects, you’re a web artist don’t write poetry, you’re not a poet don’t use blockchain, that’s for investors don’t paint, that’s for painters
Upstream Gallery is proud to present Manual, an exhibition of new work by Rafaël Rozendaal. This marks Rozendaal’s fifth exhibition with the gallery and shows a remarkable shift in his practice. He gained recognition by using the internet as his canvas, but for his latest series of works, he turned his attention to the traditional canvas.
Rozendaal has been highly successful with his digital artworks, as well as his prints, tapestries, and other art objects that translate the digital into the physical world. His pioneering status was cemented with his first major solo museum exhibition at the Folkwang Museum in Essen in 2023. However, Rozendaal’s artistic journey is unpredictable and unconventional. Last year, for the first time in his career of 25 years, Rozendaal rented a studio (previously, he needed nothing more than a laptop) and started painting. Where his earlier works were produced from intensive collaborations with experts in fields such as coding, weaving, or printing, now he is working “manually” for the first time—using his hands, acrylic paint, and canvas. For the artist, painting brings a new impetus to his practice. He started out of curiosity and, more importantly, fun – for him, “the most honest indicator of a path to take.” Working by hand results in a less controlled approach compared to his earlier works, which compels him to embrace accidents and enjoy the process.
It seems like an unusual choice for one of the world’s most renowned digital artists. However, despite the new medium, his signature style is unmistakable, and his visual language is rooted in the digital world. The paintings explore the tension between abstraction and figuration, something he calls “minimal figuration”. How few lines are needed to depict a landscape or a glass of water? This abstraction of everyday subjects and scenes runs like a thread through Rozendaal’s oeuvre and is reminiscent of early video games, leaving the viewer with a sense of suggested movement, as if the depicted places are waiting for something to happen in them.
Kloveniersburgwal 95 1011 KB Amsterdam
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