We are pleased to announce two new exhibitions at TORCH gallery. Running simultaneously, they will both open on 14th March. In the front space of the gallery we present a selection of smaller sized photographs by Ellen Kooi (1962, Leeuwarden, NL) and in the back space we introduce artist Luis Xertu (1984, Mexico City, Mexico ) with his large scale canvasses. Both artists use nature for their primary inspiration. While Kooi uses models to emphasize landscapes, Xertu paints models and surrounds them with plants glued directly on the surface. Additionally, both artists have a background in theater, therefore they are sharing a particular way of looking at the human body. Ellen Kooi, an established photographer, together with Luis Xertu, just beginning his career, combine in Torch to make you contemplate on your surroundings.
Front space
Ellen Kooi – Adopted Sites
Known for her large scale landscape and panoramic photography, Ellen Kooi recently produced smaller sized photographs. In keeping with Kooi’s signature style, this body of work explores the compelling relationship between man and landscape, with figures seemingly caught in a need to dissolve into the landscape surrounding them. Her architectural approach to composition and perspective leave her outdoor scenes feeling empty and desolate, with viewers asked to arrive at their own meaning. Ellen Kooi's works contain ambiguity, wonder, vigor, loneliness and confrontation; shown through her characters and choreography, and lead by a dazzling décor. However, some of the works on display do not contain figures at all, a rarity for Kooi. Still with the same atmosphere, these framed photos are a little more loose in character.
Back space
Luis Xertu – Renditions of Impermanence
Luis Xertu (Mexico City, 1985) moved to Netherlands in 2004. After he graduated from the Rietveld Academy he developed his painterly visual language working within the performing arts, where he has worked both as a designer and created works that experimented with the medium of theater and dance. His scenic artworks have been shown in the Dutch pavilion of the Venice Biënnale and Museum Boijmans van Beuningen.
In his pictorial work, Xertu combines the analogue and the digital; photographing models, painting them, using Photoshop to decide the composition of the surrounding nature, and meticulously gluing plants directly onto the canvas to create large scale paintings with stark compositions. Drawing from mythological references, he explores themes of time and aging incorporating the decay of real plants as elements of transformation, which can take several years to happen. He has been nominated for the Royal Award for Modern Painting 2019, and was awarded the Audience Prize. Renditions of Impermanence shows ten of his vegetated works, on view for the first time in a gallery.

Opening :
14 March, 5 – 7 pm

mpefm NETHERLANDS art press release