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Group exhibition Running Thread (Wakaman)

Remy Jungerman, Iris Kensmil, Charl Landvreugd and Kurt Nahar

Exhibition date – 17th of December, 2011 until the 4th of February, 2012
Opening – 17th of December, from 3p.m. to 7p.m.
Gallery hours – Thursday to Saturday, from 11a.m to 6p.m

Remy Jungerman was born in Moengo, Suriname and has lived in Amsterdam since 1990. His work is intrinsically related to his Surinamese origins and is centered on global citizenship in today’s society. Jungerman uses collages, sculptures and installations to show cultural critique(s) of the local and the global, the internal and the external. Traditional materials and objects are placed in different contexts that challenge the established notions of their representation within Western society. Jungerman gets his inspiration from Afro-religious elements of the traditional Maroon culture in Suriname and the Diaspora. At the same time he is also inspired by Western trends in art and modern communication technology.

Jungerman first studied art at the Academy for Higher Arts and Cultural Studies, Paramaribo (Suriname). After moving to Amsterdam in 1990 he studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy. Since his first group exhibition in the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Jungerman has participated in several solo and group exhibitions worldwide.

Creating an image of the (historical) presence of black people is the drive behind all the works of Iris Kensmil. Although she has born in Amsterdam, Kensmil lived part of her youth in Suriname. As she states: “Because of my black skin, I can’t take my participation in the European Culture for granted the way white people think they can do (Frantz Fanon). From 2004 on she makes works that commemorate historical moments from struggle for the emancipation of black people.

Kensmil draws on personal memories as well as a range of historical textual and visual material. She selects this materials on base of how she perceives what is the history of a Black European, a history that is paradoxically non-European. So most of her works are about the African-American movements or about Suriname, beside the “global” works of free imagination, e.g. about Ragga. Born in 1970, Iris Kensmil lives and works in Amsterdam. She graduates in the Minerva Groningen. In 2004 she won the Wim Izaks Prize, in 2009/2010 she did a residency at the ISCP, New York.

Charl Landvreugd was born in Suriname and raised in Rotterdam. Aesthetically, politically, theoretically as well as practically, black is the base color in his practice. Landvreugd has studied at the Goldsmiths College (London) and Columbia University (NYC), and continued his investigations of black and Blackness. He explores the plurality of black hues and advocates for distinctions in black diversity. Although Landvreugd works as a visual artist, mainly sculpture, installation and video, he has also a wide experience as a curator and a writer, working in Europe, the Caribbean and the United States.

Charl Landvreugd uses Black as an instrument to speak off our communal efforts to bridge cultural gaps worldwide. Since 2009, Landvreugd has already shown his work in New York, London and Amsterdam, and also is his home country, Suriname, along with some of the other artists presented in this exhibition at C&H art space. Despite of his short career, this young artist has already developed three artist residencies, participated in several publications and curated exhibitions with other artists, all related to black-Dutch artists in Dutch society.

Kurt Nahar defines his art works as a contribution to raising the consciousness of the general public and to encourage discussions around important, sometimes forgotten subjects. The Dada movement is clearly present in his work and Nahar’s work can be seen as an act of protest and contestation for social and political circumstances in Suriname, where he lives. Nahar’s works are a combination of common objects, photographs, film, painting, poems and furniture all together. The visual chaos, full of provocative symbolisms, tends to confront the viewer’s with social issues, of which the artist thinks that they should be brought out to public discussion.

Kurt Nahar, 1972, was born in Paramaribo, Suriname, where he lives and works. Between 1993-1997 he studies at the Nola Hatterman Institute (Art School), and in 2000 Nahar attended the Edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts, and in 2009 Research residency at the Rijksacademie. He has exhibit mostly between Suriname and the Netherlands.

C&H art space
Tweede Kostverlorenkade, 50
1053 SB – Amsterdam
info@ch-artspace.com
www.ch-artspace.com

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