IMPRINT
REZI VAN LANKVELD
18 November 2023 – 16 February 2024
Annet Gelink Gallery is proud to announce Imprint, Rezi van Lankveld's third solo exhibition in the gallery.
In Van Lankveld's paintings, the creation of the work becomes the subject of the painting itself. Both the artist's choices and coincidences, find their way through the applied and erased layers of paint. Van Lankveld's paintings can thus be seen as artifacts of this series of decisions, carrying within them the traces of their creation.
Van Lankveld constructs her paintings in a continuous process of applying and removing, searching for the right shapes. Although her work has evolved in recent years and Van Lankveld does not work in series, the works all appear to be part of the same group. Shapes and colours recur and the works seem to engage in an imaginary conversation with each other within the walls of the gallery space.
Van Lankveld's work is situated at the particular boundary between figuration and abstraction. While suggesting an observable reality, the paintings remain elusive. Each time one is under the impression one can discern an object, it withdraws from view and merges into the layers of paint. Besides the boundary between figurative and abstract, Van Lankveld's work is characterised by a merging of more apparent opposites. Organic forms blend with graphic lines, background and foreground intertwine, and distinct colours merge with soft blends.
As a title, Imprint refers to the painting process in which every finding is in fact a re-finding. Van Lankveld’s works deal with the (re)surfacing of something that was already there, unconsciously, as a memory, déjà-vue or hallucination - as opposed the representation of a palpable reality. The realisation of the painting thus marks the moment when past and present converge. Van Lankveld avoids clear-cut conclusions and her works are in a constant state of becoming. Both in the creation and existence of the paintings, there is a permanent discovery of the image in matter.
Rezi van Lankveld (1973 Almelo, NL) studied at the Jan van Eyck Academy and the Gerrit Rietveld Academy. Recent solo exhibitions include: Petzel Gallery, New York, USA (2022); Office Baroque, Antwerp (2020), Reset, Borgloon, Belgium (2019); Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam (2019); The Approach, London (2018); FIAC, Paris (2014). Her work has been a part of several group exhibitions, including Palazzo de'Toschi, Bologna (2020); Annet Gelink, Amsterdam (2019); Root Canal, by De Ateliers, Amsterdam (2018); The Approach, London (2017); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2016); and many others. Van Lankveld's work is included in the collections of the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Centraal Museum, Utrecht; Dordrechts Museum; The Rabobank Art Collection, Netherlands; The Art Collection of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Chicago, and the Zabludowicz Collection, London and New York. Van Lankveld won the prestigious prize: The Royal Award for Modern Painting (2001).
Image: Rezi van Lankveld, Loop, 2023