Witty Art to be seen in Theater Rotterdam Schouwburg as part of The Museum of Dogs!

Ok, now it's finally official! Behind the scenes, Team Dogparade010 has been working really hard on a new project and it's gonna be a real highlight for me, both as part of the team as well as an artist: The Museum of Dogs, a co-production by Dogparade010 and Theater Rotterdam.

This pop-up Museum of Dogs will open its doors in the main hall of Theater Rotterdam Schouwburg, showcasing a range of dog-themed artwork by both professional, amateur and outsider artists from Rotterdam. Some well-known, some relatively known, some completey unknown to the mainstream audience. Amongst them, yours truly - and I am indeed very proud to be part of this exhibition, which basically is a collection of ''all things dog'' in the line of ''The Museum of Everything''. All works will be shown ''French Salon Style'', creating what we have named The Wall of Dogs. 

Simultaneously, we will show a collection of dogphotography, again by both professionals and amateurs as well as special photoselections provided by the Dutch Fotomuseum Rotterdam (about 100 year photography of dogs and humans) and the Belasting & Douanemuseum Rotterdam ((featuring dog with jobs like snifferdogs and therapydogs). This Digital Wall of Dogs will be shown on the lifesize Mediawand (basically the biggest TV-screen in the country) in the Hal of Theater Rotterdam.

You can find all information on the flyer, which again is a creation from Dogparade010's trusted designer Grootzus.

All this because of the rerun of the popular Theater Rotterdam familyshow ''Woef Side Story'', a musical about streetdog Toto and upperclass dog Marina who fall in love together, with a whole LOT of consequences, but in the end, love wins. Romeo and Julia go doggystyle, so to speak.  It's, ofcourse an adaption of the famous musical ''West Side Story'', but with dog characters in the lead and Dutch versions of the music score originally written by Leonard Bernstein.

Well, if this is not something look forward to, whether you are a doglover or not, I don't know what is.

The official opening of The Museum of Dogs is on Tuesday December 19th at 17.00 hrs and after that, the museum will open daily from 11.00 to 23.00 hrs, all the way through Christmas up and untill with the final closer at January 6th, 2018: the one-day mini festival We Love Dogs.

So, what exactly am I going to show for this special exhibit then? Well, that will be revealed in another blogpost, SOON. 

Pop Up Pin Up a la Witty : tribute to the great masters of Pin Up Art!

So, last Saturday was the last day of our series of Pop Up Exhibitions at the Entrepotbuilding, Rotterdam. It coincided with a North America themed festival, with lots of vintage cars and hot rods present, so I got inspired to draw Pin Ups.

Now, it's no that I am a great lover of the classic vintage and pin up era and I am a great admirer of the work of the great pin up artists such as Gil Elvgren. So, I decided to create a series dedicated to their work and the great pin ups of the forties and fiftties. All Witty Styled, ofcourse! 

The result so far: a series of graphite pencil sketches featuring a bunch of hybrid pin-ups, as one visitor described it: ''Seriously bad ass sexy and seriously bad ass sinister as well!''

Well, that's how I like Witty Art to be!

SOLD: Witty Art series 'Crawl On The Catwalk'

Created towards the end of 2014, it got showcased for the first time during this summer's Pop Up Expo at Entrepothaven Area, Rotterdam. And it found a new home straight away, as the whole series so far has been picked up by one and the same, very enthusiastic new owner.

My series 'Crawl On The Catwalk', for now consisted out of five drawings. They were inspired by a documentay about the French fashion house Lanvin and his extraordinary designer Alber Elbaz.

New Witty Art created live during this series of Summer Pop Up Expo's!

 


One of the reasons, this series of Summer Pop Up Expo's was such great fun, was because of the way the participating artists encouraged each other to create work live on location. I myself made what I think to be quite an impressive number of drawings, using pencil, crayon and charcoal: the simple basics necessary for the highly enjoyable art of drawing. Whicb, in my case, is just a severe attack of Gotta Draw.

Also, working with (seemingly) simple materials such as pencil and charcoal, instead of using my biggest love ink, enables me to work out a couple of new ideas, as I have been stewing on new images and combinations of elements, previously used in Witty Art.

Hope you like it, and feel free to let me know what you think by leaving a comment below this blogpost; or, alternatively, on my Instagram feed, where I post Witty Art on almost a daily basis. If you are an Instagram user, feel freel to follow me there as well!

More pictures from our last Pop Up Expo at Entrepothaven!

Hieronder een paar extra foto's van onze allerlaatste Summer Pop Up Expo, zondag 19 juli jl., gemaakt door Natasja Dolk/Natasja Droomcreaties.

Below, a couple of pictures of the last of our Summer Pop Up Expo's, on Sunday July 19th. Made by Natasja Dolk/Natasja Droomcreaties.

Last day of my Witty Art Wall during this series of summer Pop Up Expo's!

 
Today was the last day of our series of Summer Pop Up Expo's at Entrepothaven Area, Rotterdam. In total of 4 Pop Ups took place, starting May 17th and ending today. During which I had the pleasure of showcasing my artwork as part of a collective of various artists:

Antoinette MH Brandenburg
Natasja Dolk/Droomcreaties
Thea Sabelis
Ejub Deary
Hans La Hey 
Debby van der Drift
Gabrielle Marie 
Janneke de Pater
Erik Leeuwenbergh
Ida Broekhart
Hanneke van Santen
Lara Muradjan
Tineke Noordzij

It was an absolutely great experience and an excellent opportunity for me to showcase another version of my Witty Art Wall. I had a great time, not only talking to many interested visitors and viewers, but also actively collaborating with the other artists. We created live art on location, inspired and encouraged each other, learned from each other's different views and skills. It was a truly enlighting experience - and great fun!

I am looking forward to the next Pop Up and definitely to working again with my fellow Pop Up organisers Antoinette MH Brandenburg and Natasja Dolk. It has been an absolute pleasure working with you two, so much it didn't feel like working at all.

More pictures of my Witty Art Wall during last weekend's Pop Up!

Just some more pictures of my Witty Art Wall during last weekend's Pop Up Expo at Entrepothaven, Rotterdam. 

It included many works that I hadn't publically showcased before, or only in its first stages, as a rough sketch. 

My Witty Art Wall sparked interesting conversation during our latest Pop Up!

Again, a good turn out for second Pop Up Exhibition at Entrepothaven, Rotterdam. It was great to see so many peole take an interest in my Witty Art Wall, and, ofcourse, Witty Art. It is always a pleasure to engage in conversations with people who are genuinely interested in my work; and there were quite a few of those during the last weekend. 

Some visitors really took their time to take in the whole wall, making up their own stories, as they were combining words and images. That was an inspiring thing to see take place!

The icing on the cake was this very personal tribute made by fellow artist Herman Schouwenburg, who had come especially to have a look at Witty Art, after he had first discovered it during the opening of my showcase at Rotterdam Coffeebar Ookami/Heiilige Rotterdamse Boontjes Koffie. I felt both honoured and touched when I saiw it - and gotta admit it, Herman really got the essence of my work and managed to capture it in this image below: 

If you want to see more of Herman's work, go visit his Flickr!

The first of a new series of Pop Ups at Entrepot Area, Rotterdam!

Today, a whole new Pop Up Expo opened at Entrepotgebouw, Rotterdam. Same area as the last Pop Up of May 17th, but different location. Though still situated at The Marina, right on the waterfront. Again, an initiative by artists Antoinette MH Brandenburg en Natasja Dolk/Droomcreaties in joint collaboration with myself, under the name of Kult@R Collective. 

We will be organising a series of three Pop Up Expo's, which starts today, June 26th and ends on July 19th. Exact dates and times are: 

June 26-28, open: 0-17 hrs

July 3-5, open: 10-17 hrs

July 19th, open: 10-17 hrs 

Again, I set up a version of my Witty Art Wall, which has turned out to be a very handy 'up & go' concept, which makes it extremely suitable for short-term pop-up events. Also, I started to see the concept of an Art Wall more and more as one big, mural-kinda-like sketching board. It provides me with an overview of how various elements and characteristics of my art work interact with each other,; and how they influence each other as well.

This time, I also took the opportunity to show a mix of both Singles and Series, like 'Crawl On The Catwalk', drawings inspired by a documentary on the French Maison of Lanvin. But also 'Roadblocked' and the threepiece 'Came To Dance' made its way to this selection. 

 

 

Other artists showcasing their works were:
- Antoinette MH Brandenburg, paintings
- Natasja Dolk/Droomcreaties, handmade mandala's, mandala designs, drawings and more
- Thea Sabelis, sculptures
- Ejub Deary, paintings & drawings

It made for an interesting collection of artwork from a broad range of artists from various disciplines and each with their own, characteristic style.

The coming days, we will get company from other artists such as Hanneke van Santen (handmade jewellery and designs); Ida Broekhart (contemporary textile art); Tineke Noordzij (paintings, iPad paintings and drawings); Debbie van der Drift (drawings, paintings and objects): Lara Muradjan (paintings) and more!