New group exhibition of Karmijn opens on August 28th - including Witty Art!

Vanaf 28 augustus t/m 8 september is een showcase van Witty Art te zien als onderdeel van de grote groepsexpositie van Kunstenaarscollectief Karmijn in de Rotterdamse Fenixloods!

Graag nodig ik jullie allemaal van harte uit voor de opening op woensdag 28 augustus a.s. om 19.30 door Jisca Bijlsma, directeur van het Chabot Museum Rotterdam. 

De expositie is daarna nog te zien t/m zondag 8 september en is dagelijks geopend van 12.00 tot 18.00 uur. Je vindt de expo op de tweede verdieping van de Fenixloods, Veerlaan 21 op Rotterdam Katendrecht.

De groepsexpositie toont werk van (bijna alle) leden van Karmijn en geeft daarmee een goed beeld van de diversiteit aan disciplines en stijlen binnen deze vereniging van ondernemende kunstenaars uit Rotterdam.

Zelf toon ik vier werken uit een nog niet eerder vertoonde Witty Art Series: ''Once Upon A Time Never Happened'', bestaande uit totaal zes werken, elk vervaardigd in 2015. Een serie, die tot stand kwam door middel van een proces dat ik ''Creative Destruction and Creative Reconstruction'' ben gaan noemen en hoe dat uitmondde in de allereerste Witty Collage Art werken ooit.

Lees meer over het ontstaan van deze serie in dit blog over ''Once Upon A Time Never Happened!'

Extra: lees meer over het vervolg daarop in dit blog over Witty Collage Art.

Nieuwsgierig? Je hebt binnenkort de kans om vier werken uit deze serie in persoon te kunnen zien, en wel van woensdag 28 augustus t/m zondag 8 september in de Fenixloods, Veerlaan 21 op Rotterdam-Katendrecht.

Tot ziens!

(english version below this picture)

(english)


Proudly presenting another selection of Witty Art as part of a greater groupexhibition of Rotterdam Art Collective Karmijn. This exhibition will show work of (nearly all) members of Karmijn and in doing so, proves to be an excellent showcase of the variety of styles and discpilines within this artists run collective.

You are all invited to join us at the Fenixloods on Rotterdam Katendrecht for the exhibition's grand opening on Wednesday August 28th, 19.30hrs by Jisca Bijlsma, the director of the renowned Chabot Museum Rotterdam.

After that, the exhibtion will be open daily from 12.00 tot 18.00 hrs up and untill with Sunday September 8th. You can find the expo on the second floor of the Fenixloods at Veerlaan 21, Rotterdam (Katendrecht area).

I myself will be showing four works from my series ''Once Upon A Time Never Happened'', born in 2015 out of a process I've come to call ''Creative Deconstruction and Creative Reconstruction'' - a process that eventually resulted in the creation of the first Witty Collage Art ever.

Please read more about this series and its birth in this blog about ''Once Upon A Time Never Happened!'

And, while yoú're at it, please read even more about where it led me creatively in this blog about Witty Collage Art.

Curious to see more? You can see four of these in person at the Fenixloods Rotterdam, Veerlaan 21 Rotterdam (Katendrecht area) from August 28th - September 8th!

See you there!

Brandnew Witty Art at a brandnew exhibition at the Marriott Hotel Rotterdam!

Photo: Yvonne Ottervanger

An artist's life often resembles that of a rollercoaster, well, mine certainly is. As my Open Studio Weekend went out of the window because I became unexpectedly and horridly ill with the flu, a new opportunity arose when I was offered the opportunity to join the latest Fresh Expo by Bubble Art Projects at the Rotterdam Marriott Hotel.

An excellent opportunity to showcase brandnew Witty Art, from a brandnew series: ''Something Fishy Going Wrong (Part 1) | Jellyfish Don't Play By The Rules!'. I will share more details of and a bit of background behind this series in a later blog.

So, last Saturday July 8th I found myself in the lobby of the Marriott Hotel in my hometown Rotterdam, in the company of seven other extremely gifted female artists, ready to get our artwork exhibited. Together, it didn't take us long to get our works up on the walls, after which each of us was given some time to talk a bit about our work. It was really interesting to hear more about each artwork, how they came to be and in what way the artists were driven to create their work. 

When it was my turn, I told a bit about myself, about my work as an artist/illustrator and, overall, visual storyteller and how I like to visualize the world that lives in my head: The World of Witty Art and all its inhabitants, the outcasts, the sole soul survivors, the perfectly imperfect misfits that are so dear to my heart. And we spoke about the symbolism behind the jellyfish - but, as said, more on that in a later blog.

(photo: Yvonne Ottervanger)

Then, it was time for an extended three course lunch together, during which we exchanged more thoughts and ideas about our artwork, art in general and experiences as professional artists. Connections were established and even some plans for future collaborations were made!

It was a very well spent and inspirtational afternoon and I can safely say that for me, I will definitely exhibit my work through Bubble Projects again, as it was a very satisfying experience and well organised event.



 
The Fresh Summer Expo at the Rotterdam Marriott, Weena 686 Rotterdam, can be seen up and untill with Friday August 30th and shows a very diverse range of original artwork by Grace Wychowanska, Julia Maximova, Izabella Verhagen, Yvonne Ottervanger, Rita Camphuijsen, Dinie van Buuren and Christy de Witt.

So, if you happen to be around the coming weeks, send me a message and who knows, we can meet up over a cup of coffee at the Marriot Rotterdam and I can show you the exhibition in person!

(c) All photos on this blog by Christy de Witt unless mentioned otherwise

Studio PuRRR opened up for the first time for Kadefestival 2017 - including small showcase of Witty Art!

So, last Sunday, we opened up our Studio PuRRR for the public, who came to the Kadefestival Delfshaven (a local festival in the Rotterdam area Tussendijken), right at our very doorstep at the Spangesekade and organised by our partner Schiezicht. My creative partner Deborah van de Beld and I'd decided to put together a small showcase of our creative skills, resulting in some Witty Art on the walls and a bit of Deborah's handmade costumework on display.

As this is my Witty Art Blog, I will focus on my own presentation here, but you if want to follow both our individual and combined creative and culinary projects, please follow Studio PuRRR on both Facebook, Instagram and ofcourse, our brandnew Blog.

For this occasion, I opted for a small presentation of a series still pretty much in progress: ''TEST L.A.B. (Lost Accidental Babies)'', a series featuring one of the most popular characters in Witty Art: UnBunny. This time, UnBunny finds himself captive in what appears to be a test lab facility where UnBunnies like himself are subjected to a series of sinister experiments, resulting in them losing shape and form and ultimately their mind.

A gruesome fate, you wouldn't want to wish upon anyone, however, as we catch glimpes of life outside, the question comes to mind whether life in the madhouse is to be prefered above the real world gone even madder. Also, if you have lost your mind, who says you cannot be happy regardless? Does one really need a sane mind to be really truly and fully happy in this world?

To be fair, questions like these pop up in my mind quite often...

I showed this series, which I originally started in 2012 and is very much up and running in 2017, before at a Pop Up Expo in the beginning of 2015, but for this occasion I thought it'd be nice to show some of the drawings still in progress. As to give the viewers a bit of an impression how Witty Art is created, in this case from the initial first pencil sketches to adding the lines in ink and adding the layers of watercolouring.

Consider it a bit of ''The Making of Witty Art'', so to speak.

Directly facing those poor little TEST UnBunnies, on the opposite wall, you can see a small selection of four so-called Singles, all of them created back in 2013-2014. These have been on display on several locations before, amongst others at Route du Nord (edition 2014) and at private artgallery Lijnbaan140 (2016) and I felt that their minimalistic mood would contradict with the colourful explosive force of the TEST L.A.B.-series in an interesting way.

After all, both type(s) of work reflect the World of Witty Art, albeit in different manners, but they definitely are firmly rooted in common ground.

During the day, quite a number of interested people came into our studio and had a look at our presentation, which led to often very entertaining and interesting conversations about our work and our studio.

So this was a very good 'test run' as far as opening up our studio is concerned, a thing we definitely are willing and planning to do more often, by organising exhibitions and other creative and culinairy events, such as our pop up restaurant Tante Timmie Kookt (Tante Timmie's Kitchen) and more!

As said above, if you don't want to miss out on upcoming Studio PuRRR events, please follow us on Facebook and/or Instagram.

Preparing for a small showcase of Witty Art during Kadefestival Delfshaven!

Currently, I am busy preparing a small showcase of Witty Art for the upcoming Open Day at our own creative studio Studio PuRRR. We were given the opportunity of opening up our studio as part of the programma of Kadefestival Delfshaven (an initiave by our partner Schiezicht), this coming Sunday August 27th! So, both my creative partner The House of Westenwind (costume designer and professional cook) and I are currently getting our studio ready for showcasing a (small) selection of our work and our creative skills and hopefully, that day some people will pay a visit to our space at the Spangesekade,which is also the very location of the festival. 

Do you happen to be around Rotterdam coming Sunday? You are more than welcome, admission to the festival is free of charge and there is lots of other great stuff to see, including a small artist market, lots of musical and theatre performances, creative workshops and lots of tasty food, all of this made and catered to you by local makers from Delfshaven!

Witty Art has left Ani & Haakien after a well recevied one-month soloshow

 
Today was the very last day of my solo showcase at Hostel Ani & Haakien. A selection of Witty Art had been on the wall since the opening on September 15th and after just over a month, it was time to pick up my work and make way for new art selected by Pica Pica 010. 

Also, it's time to take the two 'Lost Bears' I sold during the opening, to their happy new homes, as I know their arrival is eagerly awaited for by their new owners. More of that, soon! 

I'd like to thank the following persons in particular: 
Ani & Haakien's Joyce Brouwer and Danielle Linscheer for their hospitality and kindness, as well as all other staff of absolutely the cosiest hostel in town, and naturally, a special mention for Diva Suzy La Cubanita! 
Marcel Kamphuis from Pica Pica010 for organising it all! 
Alrizki Marino for making such a spontaneous video interview
All those who came by and had a look at my artwork, including all guests of Ani & Haakien whom I had the pleasure of meeting and exchaging thoughts on art, creativity and life. 

THANK YOU ALL!