In collaboration with Jeanine Hofland.
Opening during Amsterdam Art Weekend, Friday 25 Nov, 17:00 – 22:00
Special opening times: Sat 26 Nov, 12:00 – 20:00 & Sun 27 Nov, 12:00 – 18:00
Jasper Hagenaar can be considered radical in his consistent and traditional approach of the painterly plain. Sincerity and light playfulness coexist
within the scope of boyhood in a merely broad yet autobiographical sense.
The phrase, It looks like rain, sets out a certain foreboding mood that connects a new series of small, oil painted works on wooden panel. Hereby a diverse range of subjects; varying from fragments of entangled body parts of a Greek sculpture, a soft erotic image of the upper part of a woman’s leg, and the surface of a modernist sculpture, are all enhanced by a recurring glimpse of soft light. Being the keystones for narratives that rather enfold outside the painted area.
This usage of light and cut-out detail opens up a new direction within Hagenaar’s practice and demonstrates a strong focus on cinematographic story telling.
Over the last decade Hagenaar has shifted his use of medium from large scale canvasses to small wooden panels, and simultaneously intensified his subjects into the surface of objects, like vases or display cases.
Within this new direction Hagenaar drifts from this enclosed structure of the painted narrative. A drift that highlights the artist’s love for 80’s art house and slightly amateurish cinema, and the
mental state coming from alternative rock music.
But foremost it was the simple gesture of light entering the artist studio during the last days of summer, that underlines this new body of work. Emphasized by Hagenaar’s recent apprenticeship with German painter Anton Henning.
Jasper Hagenaar (1977, NL) was selected by Anton Henning for a year long mentoring trajectory (2016-17), funded by the Mondriaan foundation. The exchange of ideas, sources of inspiration and experience is the main aim of the project. Alongside several solo and group exhibitions within The Netherlands, Hagenaar has been an artist in residence at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten (2006–07). In 2012 he was the recipient of Dutch Royal Award for Painting (jury and public award). Since 2011 Hagenaar has been collaborating with gallerist Jeanine Hofland. Who showed his work within two gallery solo exhibitions, and at international art fairs such as Liste Art Fair in Basel last June. This exhibition is a collaboration between Jasper Hagenaar, Jeanine Hofland and Ornis A. gallery.