New solo showcase of Witty Art opens at Saturday February 8th!

(scroll below for the English version of this text):

GEEN onderdeel van Art Rotterdam, WEL zo leuk voor alle vrienden, fans en volgers van mijn Witty Art:

Graag nodig ik jullie hierbij uit voor de opening van een kleine maar fijne solo showcase van Witty Art:

‘’It’s A Wander-Ful World’’

Zaterdag 8 februari a.s. om 16.00u
Inloop vanaf 15.00 uur

Locatie is de intieme en o zo gezellige huiskamer van Het Nieuwe Westen: De Woonkamer van de Burgemeester, aan de Burgemeester Meineszstraat 102 Rotterdam.

De Woonkamer serveert een kleine borrel, er zijn wat hapjes en natuurlijk ben ik er zelf ook. En er is vooral heel veel Witty Art te zien!

Over deze expositie:
‘It’s A Wander-Ful World’ bevat werk van mijn hand uit de periode 2013 – heden: Varierend van eerder vertoond werk, zelden gezien werk en zelf gloedjenieuw werk waarvan de inkt nauwelijks nog droog is. Ok, bij wijze van spreken, dan.

De expo ‘It’s A Wander-Ful World’ kent ook een primeur: vanaf 8 februari komen er ook (digitale) Witty Art Prints in de verkoop, zowel in limited edition als on demand.

Bereikbaarheid:
De Woonkamer van de Burgemeester is makkelijk bereikbaar met tramlijnen 21, 23 en 24 halte Vierambachtsstraat: je stapt uit, steekt over, even dranklokaal De Burgemeester passeren aan je linkerhand en je wandelt rechtstreeks de Burgemeester Meineszlaan in. Links aanhouden en je komt vanzelf bij nummer 102 uit.

Ook buslijnen 38 (halte Burgemeester Meineszplein) en 44 (halte Vierambachtstraat/hoek Heemraadssingel) stoppen vlakbij.

Met dank aan de Woonkamer van de Burgemeester voor het ter beschikking stellen van de ruimte aan lokale kunstenaars zoals ikzelf en het sponsoren van de drankjes; en in het bijzonder aan Hans de Heus voor al zijn ondersteuning in deze!

(english version below this picture)

 

NO part of ART Rotterdam, BUT indeed a great opportunity for all you friend, fans and followers of Witty Art out there:

I’m happy to invite you to the opening of a small but ever so great solo showcase of my Witty Art:

‘’It’s A Wander-Ful World’’

Saturday February 8th at 16.00hrs
Doors open at 15.00hrs

Location is the quaint and cosy neighborhood living room called De Woonkamer van de Burgemeester - which literally translates into: The Mayor's Living Room, located at Burgemeester Meineszlaan 102 Rotterdam.

De Woonkamer will serve some drinks, there will be some nibbles and ofcourse, I will be around! And, ofcourse, there will be LOTS of Witty Art to be seen!

About the exhibition:
‘It’s a Wander-Ful World’ will show a selection of my work throughout the years 2013 – up till now. It’ll range from previously shown work, seldomly shown work and even brandnew drawings, the ink barely dry! Well ok, as a matter of speaking, that is.

This expo‘It’s A Wander-Ful World’ will also see the launch of digital Witty Art Prints, which will be available from Saturday February 8th (both in limited editon as well as ‘on demand’ – more details to be unveiled at the opening!)

How to get there:

All three tramlines 21, 23 and 24, stop Vierambachtsstraat. Cross the street, pass local bar De Burgemeester on your left side and you find yourself in the Burgemeester Meineszlaan. Keep walking straight ahead and you'll bump into De Woonkamer.

Both buslines 38 (stop Burgemeester Meinezsplein) and 44 (stop Vierambachtsstraat/Heemraadssingel) will get you there as well.

A major thank you to De Woonkamer van de Burgemeester for so generously opening up their livingroom to local artists such as myself and for sponsoring the drinks; especially Hans de Heus for all his support!

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!

 

A spontaneous video 'shoot' resulted in a really nice video of my Witty Art opening!

So, what's even more cool about the opening of my work last night at Ani & Haakien, is that one of the hostel guests actually turned out to be one extremely talented film maker (and much more than that), Alrizki Marino, who made a very nice & neat little video of moi-myself, in front of my work. The result is really, really cool - and I am really, really pleased with it!

Another video I made for Ani & Haakien. This time, it's @mizzwitty and her exhibit here at the hostel! #Rotterdam #AmStudio

A video posted by Alrizki Marino (@rmith) on Sep 15, 2016 at 2:21pm PDT

Great opening at Ani & Haakien last night!

What a great opening it was, yesterday at Hostel Ani & Haakien. Perhaps not that busy, mainly due to the hot weather, but a perfect setting for a nice and cosy summer opening. And the people who showed up were all extremely interested in my work, which resulted some really touching conversations about my work and even two brandnew pieces sold!

Unfortunatley, due to traffic delays, one of the singer-songwriters that was scheduled to perform, could not make it, but the very talented Maria-Josephine made more than up for that. And there is nothing wrong with listening to some striking songs brought to life in a nice hostelgarden during a hot summer night.

And then there were two people who took the opportunity of getting some Witty Art of their own. First, my good friend and acclaimed 'citycreator & hospitality expert Leon Keekstra aka De Stadsbemoeial; and then one of my favourite Rotterdam theatremakers and directors, Irene Siekman both purchased a piece from the series 'Lost Bear'. And ofcourse, they had to strike a pose next their new prized possessions, soon to be handed over to them once the exhibition is over.

Some more people have expressed interest in wanting to see the exhibition, while it still on, so I hope many of you will come to visit the loveliest and funkiest Hostel in Town: Ani & Haakien, located in one of Rotterdams finest areas, The Oude Westen (just a five minute walk away from Rotterdam Central Station). The exhibition is still on until October 19th and the good news is, the hostel is open 24/7 ...

Many thanks to:
Pica Pica 010 / Marcel Kamphuis for organising it all
Hostel Ani & Haakien / Joyce Brouwer & Danielle Linscheer for their hospitality and a special thanks to Miss Suzy La Cubanita for being the most glamorous hostel kitty EVAH!
Maria Josephine for performing
Deborah van de Beld for, well, being you & all your support
My dear feline friend Lord Westenwind for getting his fur everywhere!
All of you who showed up to share this moment with me, thank you for your support & the great conversations!

More than ready for the opening of Witty Art at Hostel Ani & Haakien!

Last couple of days, I have been working pretty hard to get everything ready for the upcoming opening of my expo at Hostel Ani & Haakien. Which actually is this very night, tonight. So, you can imagine there's is quite a bit of the so-called 'infamous creative stress' involved ;-)

Anyway, so far I am really happy with how this showcase of my work turned out, especially as it offers both the more cartoonlike side of my work as well as the more surrealistic part of Witty Art.

After long deliberation, I finally opted to show a little series I never really had the opportunity of sharing during an exhibition before: ''Pin Bear Wizard'', from 2013. Featuring yet another brave little bear who has indeed been dealt some pretty bad cards by Life. He is accompanied by a somewhat sinister ''ScapeGoat-ish'' character, of which not even I am quite sure whether he is the bad guy or not. And me being me, and Witty Art being Witty Art, I like to pretty much leave that one open...

But, as you can see clearly, the style of drawing for ''Pin Bear Wizard'' is much more cartoonlike and much more colourful than the other work I selected for the exhbition. Series like ''Lost Bear' but also The Singles are much more surreal and dreamlike - though they all most definitely belong to the bizarre universe that Witty Art is made from.

All in all, I am really happy with how this selection highlights both sides of my work (and my world, for that matter). It's not that I favor one above the other, though I do like the how people sometimes have different perceptions of what Witty Art stands for. Is it cartoonart, figurative or even illustration art? Is is more autonomous, abstract even? 

Now, I am not one for labelling much, but sometimes doing so helps adding a bit of context. So, name or label it whatever you yourself feel like. Whatever feels good for you - and if you don't feel the need to name it anything at all, then that's just fine. All I am after, is that my work speaks to you and manages to strike a chord or two. That it evokes some kind of emotion. That it does not leaves you untouched. Whatever the emotion may be.

And, if does do anything for you at all, that is also fine by me. I just love for people to be honest with my work - as my work as about as brutally honest as I can get. In my work, there are no walls of social conventions to be upheld, no masks to hide behind, to pretence what so ever. It is what it is. And it is what I am. No more, no less. Just me, just Witty.