Inaugurating its very first gallery space in Leuven, Belgium, The Nomadic Art Gallery challenges traditional gallery models by setting forth a new format, alternating an in-situ immersion within an underrepresented art scene with a transitional gallery space in Europe shedding light onto that scene.
Light Lilac series #1
2021
Acrylic and spraypa int on canvas.
60,5 cm (height) x 50,8 cm (width)
Courtesy of: The Nomadic Art Gallery
Opening on October 22, 2021, HOP HIP and Something Possible usher in a series of off- and online exhibitions dedicated to the gallery’s first focus on the New Zealand art scene set in dialogue with European artists, showcasing emerging and established NZ artists Philip Trusttum, Ahsin Ahsin, Marcus Hipa, and Kim Pieters.
www.thenomadicartgallery.com Instagram @thenomadicartgallery7
HOP HIP | October 22 – November 19, 2021
Something Possible | October 22 – December 5, 2021
Marking its move from a mobile public art and research project, The Nomadic Art Gallery, founded in 2020 by Arthur Buerms and long-time partner Gie, unveils its very first transitional gallery space in Leuven, Belgium.
‘Tiki punu’
2021
Marker on paper (framed )
39,5 x 43,8 cm
Courtesy of: The Nomadic Art Gallery
Photography by Elena Pavlyukova
Building on a cyclical model rooted in the notion of nomadism, the initiative sets forth a new gallery model, which unfolds through two alternating phases. The first is an in-situ immersion within an underrepresented art scene, during which Arthur and Gie invest a mobile vehicle to conduct research in the given location, the latter ultimately becoming a public art project. The second phase is set in a transitional gallery space – a temporary location in Europe which changes with each showcased art scene and where the duo initiates a dialogue between their research and the European contemporary art scene, through a program of both physical and online exhibitions.
‘Baba Yaga’s Hut’
2003
Acrylic on unstret ched canvas
182,0 x 220,0 cm
Courtesy of: The Nomadic Art Gallery
Photography by Elena Pavlyukova
‘Infants’
2003
Acrylic on unstret ched canvas
182,0 x 227,0 cm
Courtesy of: The Nomadic Art Gallery
Photography by Elena Pavlyukova
Opening on October 22, 2021, the gallery presents its inaugural focus on the established and emerging New Zealand art scene, following Arthur and Gie’s investigation into New Zealand’s artistic production throughout 2020. The first of a series of thematic exhibitions, off- and online, to take place over the coming months, HOP HIP showcases New Zealand artists Philip Trusttum (b. 1940, New Zealand), Ahsin Ahsin (b. 1983, Cook Island), and Marcus Hipa (b. 1980, Niue Island) in dialogue with Dany Tulkens (b. 1953, Belgium), while the online exhibition simultaneously on view Something Possible offers a comprehensive digital survey of longstanding New Zealand artist Kim Pieters (b. 1959, New Zealand)’s oeuvre over the last decade.
The inauguration of The Nomadic Art Gallery’s new space is rooted in its story, one which cannot be separated from that of its founders. With a shared passion for exploring, and pushing, the boundaries of art, Arthur and Gie initiated The Nomadic Art Gallery on the notion that art evolves with its context – as do how, and by whom, it is perceived.
HOP HIP brings together New Zealand artists Philip Trusttum, Ahsin Ahsin, and Marcus Hipa in tandem with Belgian sculptor Dany Tulkens, as they explore the wavering tension between music and visual art. As visitors circulate the four different gallery spaces in the show, they visually listen in turn to Baroque, Russian classical folk, experimental noise, vaporwave – and hip-hop. As the artists jointly dissect the rhythmic cadence inherent to artworks in light of musical genres, the gallery grows into a hybrid entity, announcing the deterritorialization of cultural and physical space.
‘We gaan het op onze neus krijgen’
2020
A prominent drive in its conception, critically acclaimed New Zealand figurative expressionist artist Philip Trusttum lies at the heart of the exhibition. Music plays a fundamental inspirational part in his work, in turn emanating from it in a sound-to-sight back-and-forth present throughout his Pictures at the Exhibition series (2001—2004) as in his ongoing Selfies and Masks series. Referencing a remarkable diversity of influences, from Medieval illuminated manuscripts and Japanese woodwork prints to comic book motifs and indigenous African huts, his brushstrokes, fired by music, result in a kaleidoscopic choreography of line, pattern, and luminous colors.
While Ahsin Ahsin and Marcus Hipa build on inspiration from jazz, hip-hop and vaporwave in their ability to elicit a sense of community, calling to cultural authenticity and the more political dimension of their work, Trusttum’s work most resonates in opposite, yet complementary, tempo to that of Dany Tulkens. The palpable sarcasm in Trusttum’s work is channeled to Tulkens’s seemingly dark sculptures, shedding to light a concealed lightheartedness which only the differing musicality in the works could extract.
Burgeon, 2019
Signed
Mixed media on paper 21x 29,7 cm
(5)
Walk, 2021
Signed
Mixed media on board 60 x 60 cm
(3)
Addressing this exchange between the two artists, Arthur and Gie explain:
“By offering a temporary snapshot onto a specific art scene at a given moment in time, The Nomadic Art Gallery acts a bridge between continents, a platform for New Zealand artists, in this first iteration, to share broadly the poorly known discourses that feed their creation – fragmented as they may be, all reclaiming their voice and identity on an international scale – all-the-while bringing to light new dimensions to seemingly understood European artists’ work.”
In parallel to HOP HIP, the gallery extends an extensive online survey of self-defined “adaptive” and “nonrepresentational” New Zealand artist Kim Pieters. Her paintings, drawings, photographs, and moving-image soundscapes reflect her continuing experimentation within the broad artistic field, seeking to reveal the extravisual, the minute in the sound, sight, and touch. The works call to an in-between zone, where something is possible, yet all is suspended, in time and in space – a conceptual thread throughout the work of this celebrated artist, discovered only later in her career.
Closing the very first nomadic chapter of the past year, Arthur and Gie look ahead to the months and years to come:
“A transitional non-space, undefined in time, The Nomadic Art Gallery is at the border between the public and the private, at once art project and gallery space, with the aim of setting forth the potential for new gallery models to emerge – each unique, reflecting art’s inherently flexible, dynamic and diverse nature – and its ability to endlessly manifest itself in various formats, in various spaces, to various audiences.”
Blossom (5), 2019 Signed
Mixed media on paper 21x 29,7 cm
(10)
Rapture (2), 2020 Signed
Mixed media on paper 21x 29,7 cm
(8)
HOP HIP, group exhibition of Philip Trusttum, Ahsin Ahsin, Marcus Hipa, and Dany Tulkens |
October 22— November 19, 2021
The Nomadic Art Gallery
Brusselsesteenweg 168
3020 Herent [near Leuven], Belgium
Something Possible, solo exhibition of Kim Pieters |
October 22—December 5, 2021 [Digital Exhibition]
www.thenomadicartgallery.com Instagram @thenomadicgallery7
