Summershow 2020: 'The Salon Show'

The Ravestijn Gallery is pleased to announce The Salon Show, created in collaboration with Ingeborg Ravestijn Antiques and The Wunderkammer. The exhibition will show over 80 works from (all) represented and affiliated artists, hung in the style of a 17th Century salon.

Today, art is often presented and seen in isolation. Galleries and museums alike still favour exhibitions that give space to individual series, and whilst it has its merits, it also has its pitfalls. Seeing art on its own can sever the inquisitive lines of thought that surface when diverse works hang together. It can hide possible similarities between seemingly unconnected artists and obstruct meaning to wider ideas that reach beyond the gallery. And physical spaces aside, the screens that now direct and dominate our encounters with art are rarely built for more than one image at a time.

Group shows of all kinds go someway to counter this secluded experience of art, or at least provide an alternative. The first salons introduced in 17th Century Paris were fundamental to bringing art out of private collections and into the public space. They allowed a wider demographic to experience art and were an opportunity to draw free-flowing opinions about the vast amounts of work shown simultaneously.

Now, some three hundred years later, The Salon Show aims to contribute to this way of seeing in the context of photography. Bringing together an eclectic assortment of over eighty works, the exhibition will intermingle images that would otherwise not be seen together. Tereza Zelenkova next to Nico Krijno, Christopher Anderson next to Ruth van Beek. By doing so in a traditional salon style, The Salon Show hopes to encourage new insights, thoughts and connections, further enriched by a range of antiques and fabulous installations of flora that place the exhibition closer to its origins.

The Salon Show is also as much an idea for the artists as it is for the public. For them, the exhibition is a chance to see interests, intentions and approaches collide, to see their photographs in unusual proximity to a raft of other international artists. For us, it is a rare opportunity to see the bigger picture.