'Exclamation Mark: a groupshow'

The Ravestijn Gallery proudly presents Exclamation Mark: a groupshow with works by Salim Bayri, Nico Krijno, Matt Lipps, Mark Mahaney, and Theis Wendt. Five artists from different parts of the world whose work we follow and admire turning the gallery space into a curated treasure trove. What is real and what is not we leave up to the eye of the beholder.

Salim Bayri (Morocco, 1992) grew up in Casablanca and left for Barcelona in 2010 to study at the art academy. He subsequently ended up in the Netherlands where he did a residency at the Rijksakademie. A recurring theme in Bayri's artistic practice is the 'wunderkammer' in which he creates his digital art world. In this digital space, he meticulously brings together shapes and figures that caught his attention. The work on show entitled Smart_shop is an ever-changing cabinet of curiosities, each edition being unique.

Nico Krijno (South Africa, 1981) has a background in theatre and experimental video and works at the blurry intersection of photography, collage, painting, sculpture, and performance. Probing the thresholds of each, his work materializes through a stream of unique and colorful abstractions that not only act as autonomous pieces of art but when seen as a collection, Krijno’s obsession and constant intrigue into the perception of photographs become decidedly evident.

Matt Lipps (United States, 1975) has a BFA in Photography from California State University, Long Beach, and an MFA from the University of California, Irvine. Employing collage strategies, sculptural tropes, and theater staging, he constructs three-dimensional compositions of appropriated images from high and low culture made into autonomous paper dolls to be re-photographed. Lipps breathes new life into these iconic images.

Mark Mahaney (United States, 1979) studied at the Savannah College of Art and Design, GA, USA. On show will be part of Mark Mahaney’s Polar Night series which is a passage through a rapidly changing landscape in Alaska’s northernmost town of Utqiagvik. It’s an exploration of prolonged darkness, told through the strange beauty of a snowscape cast in a two month shadow. Mahaney’s photographs are based upon a roughness that fails to give a true impression of his vision when viewed individually. Mahaney believes it is impossible to define a story through a single picture.

Theis Wendt (Denmark, 1981) went to The Royal Danish Art Academy in Copenhagen, DK, where he received his MFA in photography. Theis works on the edge of (digital) sculpture, installation, and photography. Wendt works with a range of materials and techniques, varying from aluminum casts to digitally rendered imagery. The artist's sculptures lure the viewer into a transhumanist, hellish but still hazy world while his wooden frame prints propose a more peculiar one. Theis Wendt's work can thus be called both dark and bright, dystopian and utopian, repellent and seductive.

This exhibition came to fruition thanks to the artists and Galerie van Gelder (Amsterdam), Kominek Gallery (Berlin), Jessica Silverman Gallery (San Francisco).

In Conversation With: Mark Mahaney

As a gallery we are always on the lookout for work that fascinates, resonates if you will, and sticks to you. Work we would like to acquire for our own collection. We look everywhere, from fairs to the web and anything in between. In this search we stumbled upon a book entitled Polar Night by Mark Mahaney. Owning a vast library of photography books containing over 4.000 titles this was one that captivated us instantly.

Seeing the works in real life we were determined to share the series with our audience. So we brought the work to Amsterdam. A selection of the series is now on show as part of the exhibition Exclamation Mark: a groupshow. To accompany this exhibition we asked Lola van de Graaff to interview Mark Mahaney about his practice and the making of Polar Night in particular.