Art, design and anything creative runs deeply in this couples’ blood and there are no limits to what and how they imagine the world and space around them. Suzette van Dam and James van der Velden, are known for their joint ability to transform an interesting space into something quite spectacular, and while doing so, never fail to include intriguing and sometimes unusual treasures of art and collectibles. Although their newly renovated apartment has already been sold onto the next lucky owner, we were fortunate enough to squeeze in some time with Suzette to see how they transformed what was once a dark garage in East Amsterdam, into a creative living cabinet of curiosity. With art of course, being the main focus.
WHERE DOES THEIR CREATIVE FLAIR COME FROM?
Suzette studied design and styling at the Fashion Institute in Amsterdam. She always knew she would do something creative and her studies helped her take this first step. From there, it was concepts and brands that stole her heart and which ultimately lead her to opening up her own concept store and pop-up coffee shop. Working with local artists and designers to help give them a ‘foot-up’ is part of Suzette’s curatorial enjoyment. For her, a home or space decorated by art is what can help make it truly warm, personal and adored. And in Suzette’s most recent idea of creating a country house hotel close to Amsterdam, she knows that art and design will ultimately play a huge role in creating a cozy family home feel while still maintaining an experience of luxury and retreat.
SEASONED EYES FOR DESIGN
So what sort of art does this couple collect we wondered; especially with James being a seasoned interior decorator and owner of Bricks Studio. We soon learned from our conversation with Suzette that in their collection, there are no hard and fast rules and that the wild and unlikely combination of design elements in their home is what makes it so inviting. For Suzette, if something really grabs her attention then she will spontaneously buy it and if it doesn’t fit under her arm to take home that day, she will call an uber or make a plan. For James and for bigger more expensive pieces, they will discuss it first before biting the bullet. These pieces are usually the ‘statement’ pieces that can either become big investments and or be the focal point of an interior.
Luckily though, the couple are generally on the same page with interior ideas. Although Suzette did remark at how their garage home had a particular ‘James flair’ of a more chaotic masculine, ‘man-cave’ feel. He likes to use a lot of colours and prints in combination with a modern but industrial feeling. And Suzette tends to organise this chaos with her softer lighter style. We think he may have taken advantage of Suzette being pregnant at the time of their renovation which meant more freedom to play with his ideas. Their next home though, we hear from Suzette, will be lighter softer and calmer but never without their joint cabinets of curiosity.
ART CAN BE A CONVERSATION STARTER
Taking a walk through Suzette’s and James’s apartment is like a wild adventure. Our eyes were on stalks as we walked around every corner, door or structure. From a large contemporary poster framed in black and mounted in place of a toilet door, to dome glass jars filled with eggs and other interesting inanimate objects. In fact, the list goes on to taxidermy, tortoise shells, collectible cars and robotic sculptures.
Of course the first thing we wanted to know was WHERE DOES ALL THIS STUFF COME FROM? Suzette told us that wherever they go, be it a flea market or art fair, their combined desire to surround themselves with beautiful aesthetics in whatever form that may come, is key to their collection. Some of their art and collectibles are created by James’s mother and sister who work together as contemporary sculptors (Bibimichele), some art is shipped from art fairs across the globe, some pieces are collected from markets and even from EBAY online, and some art (mainly photographs and posters) is created by the couple themselves. Their art and collectibles are carefully and deliberately grouped into mini installations on top of shelves, books and mounted onto walls… all set up for great stories and conversations with visitors.
GROWING HER COLLECTION
Suzette’s fine art collection all started with the large canvas collage of ‘GABI’ which she bought ten years ago. It now hangs impressively in the middle of their apartment, around the corner from their more recent purchase of the blurry lady (untitled) from the Amsterdam Affordable art fair. Suzette wanted her so badly that she ordered an uber van to take it home with her and had to carry it up three flights of stairs to get it into her house. She hung it up that same night and it fitted perfectly. Buying art from up and coming artists is important to Suzette and next on her radar or ‘art bucket list’ is a Louise Bourgouis or something from David Hockney.
With Suzette’s new luxury cottages and hotel concept in the making, art will no doubt be of great consideration in creating the cozy serene feeling that she imagines it to be. She tells us that there will be big statement pieces and a big sculpture outside, preferably from her mother and sister in law. And what excites us the most is that Suzette plans to work with new up and coming artists to create something especially for the hotel. We will watch this space!
Research into your favourite art piece could unexpectedly lead you into pulling the trigger
Every week, we ask an inspiring person to select their favourite art piece from the FRAEMd platform. We call these weekly posts ‘CURATED BY’ and we have loved seeing what people select and why. This week our special inspirator, Seroj de Graaf, selected and then decided to BUY his favourite piece. WOW. This just shows how far a little research can go into growing your own art collection. For Seroj, his research revealed a special connection that he had with the artist. He also describes noticing something magical and surreal in the artwork, finding it hard to understand how and why he became so emotionally engaged with the piece.
Keep reading to see which artwork Seroj bought and why…
For Future Reflections, 2014
Thijs Ebbe Fokkens
mdf, styrofoam, sand, neon
27x27x27cm
Edition 3 + 2 AP
Courtesy of Joey Ramone
ABOUT OUR ‘INSPIRATOR’ OF THIS WEEK
Seroj is a renowned Dutch product designer with a focus on lifestyle products and fashion accessories. His company, ‘by SEROJ’, was founded to empower businesses by supporting them to transform their product ideas into successful design products. Seroj is a spatial visual thinker and dedicated product designer with a fine eye for detail and a broad knowledge of materials and techniques. He is also curious and eager in the fields of art, manufacturing, tech and business. With Seroj’s unique combination of interests, we were really intrigued to see which artwork he would select.
THE THOUGHT BEHIND THE SELECTION
Seroj about the artwork: “Most of the art I feel connected to is sculptural but in particular, I'm drawn to mixed media artworks or works that have a certain sense of plasticity. When starting my search on FRAEMd I directly selected the filter ‘mixed media’. Scrolling through all the pages with artworks, I instantly got drawn into this little white cube feeling excited and ready to dive right into it. Every once in a while I got struck by this deep feeling of something resonating with me and that is when I know something is right. When I went to do more research on the artist, I soon realised that it was his work methodology that really caught my attention as it has a lot of similarities with my own vision and approach to design, mainly a process through trial and error. It is a process where the creator investigates, questions and then defines the work and its qualities by using all his/her personal senses while creating it. Part of this process is diving into the materials and details, shaping them and then taking a step back to re-evaluate. When observing artworks such as this one, I feel like reliving and resolving the process of ‘searching for form’ that the artist was going through.
I find the work For Future Reflections absolutely fascinating as the process of making the work seems quite visible. It also shows an interesting contrast of what happens in the world within one frame. It depicts not just a sand dune, but also a fascinating world due to the contrast between shadow and light. It is this and the hyper focus on light, that draws you in even closer. It feels like something extraordinary is happening within the frame of the box, whilst being conserved in a sort of terrarium (a glass container for plants). It feels quite surreal.
In our everyday lives, we are confined by our constant need to contextualize and understand everything. However, in this artwork, there is so much happening within the frame that it is difficult to define, contain and make assumptions. In the search for form you will notice that in order to make sense of what works, the artists has a genuine dialogue with the material that he uses. This work also reminds me of a work by Olafur Eliasson. In the Louisiana museum of modern art in Denmark, Eliasson’s solo exhibition called Riverbed, was a site specific project where he transformed the entire exhibition space into a rocky landscape. This raises the interesting question of: where does the canvas end?”
ABOUT THE ARTIST
The work of Thijs Ebbe Fokkens (1981) can be read as a story that alludes to scientific and religious endeavors that people undertake to get a grip on the world. His combinations of drawings, photographs, models and installations tell us of obscure moments and mysterious places.
Fokkens’ scenes and situations derive from the desire to capture significance and the search for an ideal vantage point to do so, to get a good look at notions about us, about the self and the tech, about nature, time and other narratives. Fokkens’ trail of thoughts and actions end up creating a space rather than stating a point. His ambiguous and poetic work creates a world full of promise and provides the opportunity to contemplate and wonder.
If you love this work as much as Seroj, there is one last edition left...
Purchase or preview the artwork on your own wall here
Learn more about our Inspirator of this week, Seroj.
Show us your favourite by using #fraemdcuratedby to become our next Inspirator.
THE WORLDS FIRST & ONLY FEMALE OFFSHORE CERTIFIED ARTIST
Tanja grew up in a ‘typical’ small Dutch town in the east of the Netherlands where she would take to the manicured playgrounds with her friends. Part of their play involved fake wood cabins, pretend horse riding on a bike and endless walks past the river Ijssel (with a highway passing through). With a constructed Dutch landscape as her everyday, her experience with the wild was little to none. It was perhaps this, that lead to Tanja’s interest in stories of landscapes.
“I think I was naturally drawn to photography because back in the day, my dad had a lot of photographic equipment which meant I got my first camera at the age of 8. It was a green Kodak click camera and I was obsessed with it. Later on, I became interested in black and white photography and so my father showed me how to work in a dark room. Between the two of us, we put all our equipment in our tiny bathroom. It wasn’t until after secondary school, from advice taken from my teacher, that I decided to study art” says Tanja.
Tanja’s work usually starts with something she reads, whether it be a short headline on the web or a novel about a specific place. She is interested in the many layers that make up our landscapes such as history, culture and economics; ranging from the business district of London, to the rural Wyoming and the endless North sea. In Tanja’s recent projects, research into these landscapes has become an important focus.
“When photographic imagery and material play come together, the many layers like history and economy that make up a landscape come to life”
In one of Tanja’s recent projects, she was influenced by a newspaper article that she read about vacancy in the North Sea. She began to ask questions such as what constructions are these, who owns them and what is the scale of them? She began her investigation by reading about the offshore industry, meeting with people working on platforms and an ecologists conducting research on the wildlife. After trying hard to find a way to visit these places, she finally secured a spot on a vessel where she would soon spend two weeks filming and photographing.
Back onshore... and the editing process begins. Cutting, pasting and making scaleable models is what enables Tanja to create a spatial experience and this is usually where other techniques also come into play. Most of the time,Tanja prints onto materials that are found in certain landscapes, altering the viewers experience of the image.
For example in ‘Cities of desire’, Tanja has printed onto recycled material from the offshore industry in the North Sea. The rusty scratched steel and the different shades of grey, add texture and meaning to the image. Ideas of the future of the North Sea and its environmental issues are prominent through this technique and experience.
During Tanja’s research and experimentation, a contextual frame work arises. Also, Italo Calvino’s Invisible cities is a major influence in Tanja’s work about the offshore. In this book Marco Polo talks with Kublai Kan about his travels. Tanja explains that “while speaking of imaginary cities, the conversation becomes like a game of chess. I loved the language of the book and the possibilities of these cities. They encompass both the emotional as the mathematical, and show a sense of fear and longing”.
Bozeman’s Curse – Untitled VI
By Tanja Engelberts
Etch on brass
€ 3.500
Courtesy of Seelevel gallery
See here for more works by Tanja Engelberts
Text by: Georgia Fane Hervey
Pictures by: Iris Haverkamp Begemann
AN ARTIST THAT CREATES INTIMATE EXPERIENCES FOR HER AUDIENCE
Marijn Bax grew up in a small and “narrow-minded” village that she felt oppressive. To her, now, working as an artist and photographer is the biggest freedom that she can possibly imagine. After finishing her degree in social cultural studies, she found herself working as an assistant photographer in various fields of photography (reporting, portraiture, documentaries and fashion) while working on assignment as a freelance photographer herself. It was in 2012 when Marijn began her Masters of photography at the Art Academy AKV St Joost Breda in the Netherlands, graduating in 2014. She has since devoted her time in her studio to create images based on our ideas of ‘truth’ and ‘story telling’.
“In my installations, I emphasise the role of space and time in shaping our experiences. Now that almost every image can be downloaded in high-res within seconds on the internet, I try to resist all that is instant and omnipresent- emphasising the local, the slow and the specific instead”.
In 2015 the Mondriaan Fund supported Marijn with a grant for emerging artists (Werkbijdragen Jong Talent) and since then, has also been represented by Galerie Caroline O’Breen - (formerly Seelevel Gallery). Last year (2016), she completed two large research based in-situ projects: ENDS MEET in Castrum Peregrini, Amsterdam and REFLECTIONS in Den Bosch as a part of Bosch 500.
MARIJN HAS A GREAT INTEREST IN HUMAN PSYCHOLOGY AND THE BOUNDARIES OF INTERPRETATION
Marijn is inspired by the stories she finds within the buildings in which she works - be it the spaces themselves or the personal narratives that she retrieves from the archives and her interest in human psychology. In the end, it all lands up merging together in experiences that are often intimate and that always push, question and dissolve boundaries.
ENDS MEET - Where is the frontier of LIKE and LOVE - 3.8.3
Wood, glass, rubber
11,5 H x 17 W cm
Courtesy of Galerie Caroline O’Breen
In her work, past and present collide; private and public merge; and fact and fiction become incredibly hard to tell apart. By juggling these lines, Marijn believes that we are able to reflect upon our own patterns and habits of thought. Now that we supposedly live in a ‘post-truth’ era, she asks her audience how, exactly, they would interpret a story when they hear, read, or see it? How do their own past presumptions and preoccupations shape their interpretations and ideas of truth? Wat is ‘truth’, anyway, and is it possible ever to get at it?
A REAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MATERIALS USED AND STORIES TOLD
New work for Marijn arises intuitively from the ‘process’ of her research and the space within she works. And according to Marijn, sometimes her work is only created a week before the exhibition opens.
ENDS MEET – Fluid Compositions
Porcelain, aluminum and polaroid
16,8 H x 14,5 W cm
Courtesy of Galerie Caroline O’Breen
The materials she uses are always inspired and related to the stories she tells. In one of her works titled ‘ENDS MEET’ for example, she created porcelain frames. Porcelain, fluid from the start, can break and could be reshaped again - but, will never decay. This feature for her, was symbolic in her research on the question: “Where is the frontier of LIKE and LOVE?” (a quote by Gisele van Waterschoot van der Gracht).
Click here to see more works by Marijn Bax
Or visit Marijn’s newest exhibition (12 Oct. - 18 Nov.) ‘Touch of Stone’ at galerie Caroline O’ Breen.
Text by: Georgia Fane Hervey
Pictures by: Iris Haverkamp Begemann
Gijs van Lith grew up in Breugel, a small village near Eindhoven (NL). From an early age, he was always drawing and building things - mostly large drawings of marvel comics like Spiderman and Cable. He and his Dad had a small shed where they each had their own workbench... his first ever shared studio. And today, he can still remember that wonderful smell of tires, wood and iron.
Once Gijs completed high school, he knew he was destined to work with his hands and do something creative. And so he enrolled at St. Lucas in Boxtel, (NL), where he studied paint-technology and also how to build, sustain and design buildings. However it was during his time at the Art Academy (AKV St. Joost, ‘s-Hertogenbosch) where his love for creating art really came into its own. After graduating from the academy in 2008, he was nominated for a few art prizes and was invited to participate in a number of gallery shows. But the cherry on the top for him was that the (then) Queen Beatrix of Holland, became one of his first important collectors. A flying start to his art career indeed.
“I like the callus on my hands”, says Gijs
Untitled no.6 , 2016
Oil, acrylic & spray paint on linen
95 H x 75 W cm
His main focus is on painting and it’s fundamentals, but his body of work also entails sculptures and installations. His work is all about the creation, the activity, and the actual process of painting. Gijs works systematically and in serial order. In his work, he explores ideas about surface, materiality, spatiality, physicality and time. Often interests in (art-) history, theoretical views, movies and sports surfaces in his work especially in the titles. Questions like:
What is the length of a painting and does a painting end? Where and what are the physical limitations of the painting and the surface, what do these limitations mean and what do they offer to explore further?
Where boredom, chaos, energy and intuition melt together
When Gijs creates art, he has periods of play and alchemist exploration. He finds new and interesting materials and/or colour-combinations. He describes this creative state of mind as a ‘constructive nonchalance’ state, which leads to new small try-outs and tests.
According to Gijs, his studio is not just a place of origin but it is the natural habitat of his work. Here it can be seen in its most honest and ‘unstable’ state - as part of an on-going process. He translates this idea in the context of a gallery through creating large transparent plastic bubbles, which he paints from the inside out. These monumental balloon-sculptures become metaphors for the microcosm of his studio. Here, the broader universe of the artist is somewhat made ‘concrete’ and ‘stable’ in the act of applying paint on a surface.
Gijs also organises and curates exhibitions at Art Spaces and sometimes at Galleries. For him, this a great way to meet other artists and get to really know their work and their thought process. Mo van der Have, (Director Torch Gallery) and Gijs are currently working together on an exciting exhibition which will open in November.
To view or purchase works by Gijs van Lith, click here
PAINTINGS THAT HAVE IMPRESSED WELL AT ART ROTTERDAM
Wouter van der Laan was born in Huizen in 1993 and moved to Almere where he spent his teenage years. He started drawing and painting at twelve years old after seeing the works of Rembrandt van Rijn and Caravaggio in the Rijksmuseum. With the paintings he made at that time, he entered and won a painting contest for kids, as part of the Rembrandt year, which convinced him to pursue a career as a painter. In 2015, Wouter graduated from the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in Utrecht and immediately continued his studies in Groningen at the Frank Mohr Institute, where he is currently completing his Masters in Painting.
Above: The studio
A PLAYFUL PROCESS OF CREATING MEANING
In Wouter’s work, he is increasingly looking to adopt an open approach to his paintings, so that he can start to include different techniques and elements.. These elements range from digital images to scrap and leftovers that move around his studio environment. Through this open approach, he is looking for a playful way of putting ‘things’ together to find interesting combinations. These combinations are often temporary and can, at any moment, be re-organised or re-installed. The provisional and local quality in this, resonates with an interest he has in the formal use of (verbal/written) language as seen in the plays by Samuel Beckett. In these plays his characters constantly attempt to make statements, to find sense in words, but fail in the process of talking: they stutter, forget the meaning of words, lose attention, etc. Yet, they keep on trying. Wouter try’s to employ a similar visual language in his paintings and in the process of how he works in the studio.
ARTWORK THAT IS NEVER REALLY EVER FINISHED
For Wouter, new works always develop from other works. When he feels that a surface is becoming saturated, he moves on to a new one. As seen in his studio space, his works also tend to blend into temporal installations, blurring the line between the singular or collective work of art.
“It has been said, that I paint like a sculptor”
Wouter uses a variety of paints (oil, acrylic, ink, spray paint, etc.) and tools. He also uses printing and transfer methods to use photographs and other printed material in his paintings. Through this process, he creates a feedback loop in which elements reappear in different constellations and on different surfaces. In this way, he tries to set up an organic and fluid practice where older works can be continued and translated in new works so that he is never really finished with a work of art.
Escapism in Film Noir #3, 2015
By Wouter van der Laan
Acrylic on panel
Courtesy of Galerie Rianne Groen
Every week an inspiring person shares their favourite artwork…
This week: Laura Rooseboom, co-founder and managing partner of a sustainable venture capitalist company, StartGreen Capital. In the Netherlands, Laura was one of the first investors in sustainable business and she supported many of the early “green’ companies in their growth. Her personal belief is that we can only continue to live on this planet with so many people if we adapt our way of living and that in order to do this, we need innovative companies to lead the way.
Keep reading to see which artwork Laura chose as her favourite…
Untitled (RedBlueYellowTokyo)
By Bart Benschop
Courtesy of Galerie Helder
Laura: I like the works of Bart Benschop because it is a wonderful mix of abstract and figurative. I like the changing perspective in that if you glimpse at the work, you see some sort of pattern but if you take a closer look you see recognisable images, as if behind a veil.
About the artist: Bart Benschop (1965, Amsterdam) creates his photographs while driving at speed along highways. After thorough inspection of the roadside area, he shoots the film in double or triple exposures, producing a rhythm of transparent frames. These fragments of layered landscapes deliver a cinematographic experience in your mind. They bring about faintly recollected memories of glimpses in the near past. His photographs make you wander in the process of perception.
Purchase or preview the artwork on your own wall here
Learn more about our Inspirator of this week, Laura Rooseboom
Show us your favourite by using #fraemdcuratedby to become our next Inspirator.
Every week an inspiring person shares their favourite artwork…
This week: Founder of FEST Amsterdam, Femke Furnée. FEST Amsterdam was founded in 2013 by Femke’s personal need for well designed furniture without the high-end prices. She decided to fulfil this need by designing affordable furniture and home accessories herself. And because Femke also has a background in studying art history, we thought it would be interesting to see which art work she would select as her favourite.
Keep reading to see which artwork Femke chose and why…
Yonder, 2013
By Marnix Goossens
UltraChrome Archival fine art print
Print size for book: 33 x 27.5 cm / Image size: 30 x 24 cm
Total edition of 90 + 10 AP
€ 200.00 each
Courtesy of Foam Editions
*This special edition consists of a print and a book (choice between one of three prints)
Femke: “Even though these three works are not necessarily the most logical combination, I think that they work really well together. I love the combination of graphic lines and colours in all three images. The combination of black, white, ice blue and green... is a dreamy one, like you’re just gazing into a new world. At first sight, these photos look like images of nature. But when you look closely, you’ll see that all three photos were made indoors, shot in abandoned homes.
About the work: Marnix Goossens work is based on three core themes: nature, portraits and still lifes. Most of his pictures represent natural scenes. Goossens focuses on the beauty of flowers and wildlife that can be found in human habitats. The use of a view camera has resulted in detailed and highly concentrated images (a view camera is a style of camera that dates back to the 1850’s and is still in use today, though with many refinements).
About the artist: Marnix Goossens (born 1967) lives and works in Amsterdam. He studied at the School of Arts in Utrecht, Fine Arts Studios in Arnhem and he was a resident of the State Academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam. His work has been exhibited in many (inter) national exhibitions, including at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Huis Marseille in Amsterdam, Institut Néerlandais and Européene Maison de la Photographie in Paris, the Neue Pinakothek in Munich and Aperture Foundation in New York.
Purchase or preview the artwork on your own wall here
A SPECIAL COLLABORATION
Art & interior? Yes, we are going to prove that there is nothing more exhilarating than the combination of these two. In a fresh exhibition in the interior shop of FEST Amsterdam, we will present some works from the following artists:
Malick Sidibé
- Foam Editions
Marnix Goossens
- Foam Editions
Daniela Schwabe
- Galerie Bart
Lin de Mol
- Ron Lang Art
WOULD LIKE TO JOIN THE OPENING NIGHT FESTIVITIES?
LEARN MORE HERE
