A review on the exhibition 'Now This' curated by Willem Kevenaar

Recently I wrote about the upcoming exhibition ‘flower still lives’. This exhibition is hosted by Kunsthandel P. de Boer, established at a beautiful canal house in Amsterdam. And what a pleasant surprise this exhibition is. Jacky Simons, in cooperation with Niels de Boer and the contemporary artists, has curated a show that displays some surprising elements. It is Interesting to see how the contemporary art can be as powerful as the old masters. Jacky did a superb job connecting for instance a painting Jan van Bijlert with the contemporary art by Wendelien Daan. The lovely perfume room, with very unique perfumes by Hiram Green amongst others, who creates one fragrance per year, gives it that little bit of extra and makes you experience art in a different way. One of the artists, Merijn Bolink, shows a branch. It almost makes you wonder if this artwork has been created especially for the room, the combination with the environment seems to be close to perfection. The story behind the art work is fascinating. Merijn uses internet sources to create shapes and forms. Apart from the flower still lives there is one room, showing portraits from masters such as Hendrick Van Vliet and Isaack Luttichuys, combined with the very delicate works by the hand of Carina Ellemers. Her abstract and minimalistic works of art create such a powerful dialogue with the old master’s portraits. An absolute must see. This exhibition is still on display, and closes at Sunday the 10th of June. For more information visit the website of kunsthandel P. de Boer.

When you think of old masters like Ambrosius Bosschaert de Oude or Jan Davidsz de Heem, and their flower still lives, contemporary art is not the first connection that comes to mind and yet Jacky Simons started to explore connections, similarities, and contrasts and came up with the idea to organize an exhibition combining the two. A very interesting idea. One wonders to what extend contemporary artists still find inspiration in the Old Masters, and another question could be if the quality and craftsmanship would be comparable. These are just some ways of looking at this special exhibition. It will be exciting to see what kind of dialogue may occur; perhaps it even puts the old masters in a new perspective. Or give a different kind of emotion or symbolism to the contemporary art. There will be an art work by Jennifer Tee on display, who expresses with her ‘Taman Tulip’ of dried tulip leaves the transgression and connection of birth and sole. The image above is an art work by the hand of Patricia de Ruijter. Will the experience of these art works change once they are surrounded by old masters, what will the connecting element be, colour, similar flowers, or would it be something different? To create even more of an experience, Jacky also invited Erik Zwaga to be part of the exhibition. The specialty of this multi-disciplinary artist is perfumes, and especially for the occasion Zwaga composed a scent inspired by a still-life by the hand of Jan van den Hecke. Would this change the impression and feeling of this painting, would it make you believe that this is the actual scent of the flowers on the painting? These are just a couple of examples of the fabulous line up of artists that will be shown at this exhibitions. To make the circle round, Jacky decided to donate to a worthy cause, the honeybees. Because as she said: no bees , no flowers. And isn’t this a lovely thought, to go back to nature where it all starts. This exhibition will be hosted by Kunsthandel P. de Boer, art dealer, specialized in Old Masters. It will open on the 25th of May and will be on display until June 10. At their website you will find more information regarding the selected artists, opening hours, address etc.