The Curators Room

06/06/2024

04/04/2024

Opening tomorrow 17.00-20.00H

CESC ABAD
‘The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret’
(Curated by Gabriel Rolt)
05 – 28 April 2024

-

Image:
Cesc Abad,
‘The whisper’
Oil on canvas
150 x 130 cm
2024
-

WACD gallery is delighted to present the exhibition “The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret,” curated by Gabriel Rolt, featuring the most recent body of work by Spanish painter Cesc Abad consisting of 12 paintings and 2 sculptures.

Each painting in this exhibition holds a secret, reflecting Cesc Abad’s own journey of secrecy and revelation. At the age of 21, he was forced to abandon his artistic career and take over the family business due to his father’s sudden death. For 20 years, he worked in secret behind a fake wall in his office, a space known simply as “the wall” to his employees. Only his family and a few close friends were aware of what he was doing behind that wall. After living a double life for many years, Abad decided to sell his companies in 2016 and dedicate himself exclusively to his artistic career.

Cesc Abad’s practice is marked by a constant evolution of styles, with each one leading to the next. In his latest series, which could be described as Neo-Renaissance, he revisits a the old masters from the Cinquecento, such as Rogier van der Weyden and Giorgione. This choice is not just a nod to art history but also a deliberate move to slow down and reconnect with the essence of our relationship with nature. In a world overloaded with images and communication moving at a rapid pace, Abad’s research to Renaissance painting is a deliberate step back to move forward, echoing the approach of artists like Kirchner and Nolde from the Die Brücke movement in Berlin, who found inspiration in the old masters to forge new paths forward.

‘Kind-hearted’ is a term that aptly describes all the works in this exhibition, welcoming the viewers to reflect on their own relationship with nature and the world around them.

03/04/2024

Opening this Friday 17.00-20.00H

CESC ABAD
‘The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret’
(Curated by Gabriel Rolt)
05 – 28 April 2024

Tweede Tuindwarsstraat 4
1015 RZ Amsterdam
[email protected]

-

We are delighted to present the exhibition ‘The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret’, curated by Gabriel Rolt, featuring the most recent body of work by Spanish painter Cesc Abad consisting of 12 paintings and 2 sculptures.

Each painting in this exhibition holds a secret, reflecting Cesc Abad’s own journey of secrecy and revelation. At the age of 21, he was forced to abandon his artistic career and take over the family business due to his father’s sudden death. For 20 years, he worked in secret behind a fake wall in his office, a space known simply as “the wall” to his employees. Only his family and a few close friends were aware of what he was doing behind that wall. After living a double life for many years, Abad decided to sell his companies in 2016 and dedicate himself exclusively to his artistic career.

Cesc Abad’s practice is marked by a constant evolution of styles, with each one leading to the next. In his latest series, which could be described as Neo-Renaissance, he revisits a the old masters from the Cinquecento, such as Rogier van der Weyden and Giorgione. This choice is not just a nod to art history but also a deliberate move to slow down and reconnect with the essence of our relationship with nature. In a world overloaded with images and communication moving at a rapid pace, Abad’s research to Renaissance painting is a deliberate step back to move forward, echoing the approach of artists like Kirchner and Nolde from the Die Brücke movement in Berlin, who found inspiration in the old masters to forge new paths forward.

27/03/2024

Richard Serra
March 8 – April 5, 1986
142 GREENE, NYC 🩵

13/08/2023

Bobbi Essers /
‘Mari-James’
Oil paint on canvas
24 x 18 cm
2022


Included in:
𝕱𝖎𝖗𝖊𝖘𝖙𝖆𝖗𝖙𝖊𝖗
In coopeartion with

13/08/2023

Bobbi Essers /
‘Mari-James’
Oil paint on canvas
24 x 18 cm
2022


Included in:
𝕱𝖎𝖗𝖊𝖘𝖙𝖆𝖗𝖙𝖊𝖗
In coopeartion with

09/08/2023

/// ADAM BROOMBERG ( )
ᴛᴀʟᴋ ᴀꜱ ᴛʜᴇʏ ᴄᴀɴ ʜᴇᴀʀ ʏᴏᴜ
Marble
80 x 50 x 10 cm


Adam Broomberg’s sculptures employ the contingency of found objects and a repeated act of minimalist mark-making to quietly interrogate the association between the past and the material he is working with. Broomberg’s eclectic sculptures comprise fragments of marble architectural features into which he has made simple incisions, like lines draw into the material.


Broomberg selected and gathered the pieces from the rubbish dumps of old marble workshops in Sicily, where he is currently working and was once a world center for marble quarrying, production and finishing. As the quintessential material of classicism, marble comes loaded with a crowd of meanings and association. Set against these Broomberg’s incisions seem like acts of negation or at least question, posed in minimal form.


Adam Broomberg (born 1970, ZA) is an artist and an activist. His work is held in many international collections including MoMa, The Tate Modern, Stedelijk Museum and The Centre Georges Pompidou. He lives and works in Berlin.


Curated by
For .amsterdam
Photo

06/08/2023

🌈 introducing ‘Paul’ by
/// soon


Gijs van Lith
(Paul Wip)
oil on linen
200 x 155cm
2023

Following the footsteps of Cézanne, Gijs van Lith’s new body of works is a result of experimentation, developing his style by trial and error.

💙

02/08/2023

“good artists borrow, great artists steal.”
— Pablo Picasso


In preparation of the new art season, this week we paid
a studio visit. Hereby a sneak preview of Frans’ most recent series🌈


“When I started working on these new series I took Picasso’s Rose period as a starting point. I was curious about his subjects, the technique and his first steps towards abstraction. After finishing the first paintings I realized I was letting Picasso go and saw the works turning into Franciscus-paintings”

— Frans Franciscus

29/07/2023

🌈 studio visit


In preparation for the art season to come, we also paid Paul du Bois-Reymond a studio visit. Hereby a sneak preview of his new efforts.


Paul’s practice consists of an outstanding sense of composition and color combined with a high level of discipline with strong conceptual fundaments. Always in motion making a studio visit a big adventure.


Through neo-surrealist universes, extracted from and produced in the digital realm, are materially embo- died. Starting from virtual images devoid of artistic aura, either internet captures, personal snapshots or objects generated by artificial intelligence, the Paul du Boi-Reymond collects, recomposes, and transfers these fragments to the surface of the canvas.


Image:
Paul du Bois-Reymond
‘Not titled yet’
Oil pastels and oil on canvas
90 x 70 cm
2023