curated by Paul Kooiker
31 March – 1 May 2012
Opening:
31 March, from 5–7pm
AKINCI
Lijnbaansgracht 317
1017 WZ Amsterdam
Info@akinci.nl
www.akinci.nl
In Andrei Roiter’s new exhibition ‘Studio Visit’, AKINCI is pleased to present an unusual concept giving Dutch artist Paul Kooiker an opportunity to show his vision and understanding of Andrei Roiter as an artist. The result is a surprising collage of recent and older works that brings to mind the Surrealists’ statement of an encounter ‘as beautiful as the chance meeting on a dissecting table of a sewing machine and an umbrella’. In choosing the works for the exhibition, Kooiker allowed himself to be guided by his own intuition, while concentrating on the ‘oddities’ in Roiter’s oeuvre. The installation is an intense array of portraits, drawings and small objects with a particular emphasis on the excitement of bringing them all together in one place.
In his work, Andrei Roiter often adopts the role of tourist or flaneur. The memories and impressions he has collected during his travels, and those which the artist has recorded using snapshots sometimes return years later in his objects and paintings, often in a tragicomic manner. One image that recurs frequently is a suitcase with a large hole in the center. This opening symbolizes the physical and mental freedom that all individuals can attain. Roiter’s work reveals a melancholic sense of humour, transformed in poetic images which appear to have freed themselves from any and all context. In addition to drawings and paintings, objects and artefacts dominate Roiter’s most recent works. He fashions sculptures from scrap wood and other discarded materials, creating pieces that suggest mobility and transition, and at times a whimsical reference to the Russian Constructivist tradition.
Andrei Roiter (Moscow, 1960) studied at the Institute of Architecture in Moscow. In early 1990, Roiter relocated, dividing his time between Amsterdam and New York. Among the more notable exhibitions were Basel Kunsthalle, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Ludwig Forum in Aachen and Kunsthalle Recklinghausen, Germany. His recent solo exhibitions include: Jack Hanley Gallery, New York (2012), Solothurn Art Museum, Switzerland (2011), Regina Gallery, Moscow (2011), Stedelijk Museum, Schiedam (2010), Stedelijk Museum, ‘s Hertogenbosch (2010).
Paul Kooiker (Rotterdam, 1964) studied at the Royal Academy in The Hague, and the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam. Solo shows of his work have been held in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam (2009), Foam in Amsterdam (2006), and the James Cohan Gallery in New York (2002).
In 1996, Kooiker won the Prix de Rome Award and in 2009, the A. Roland Holst Award.
Upcoming:
ART COLOGNE
17–22 April 2012
Hall 11.3, booth D-021
New Positions: Persijn Broersen & Margit Lukács
