A garden has many facets. Plants and trees flourish, animals make it their habitat and structures deteriorate under the influence of sunshine and rainfall. Most of all, it’s a tiny piece of nature under influence of and in dialogue with its maker. These primal themes form the common ground on which the four artists presented in this exhibition build their work. They create their pieces through an organic process, intuitive, as to mimic the growth patterns of the natural world. Using their own perspectives, each of them presents a way of perceiving reality and the outdoors, inviting you to step outside in Galerie Bart’s first garden exhibition.

Kokou Ferdinand Makouvia (1989, TG, based in Amsterdam) uses his sculptures to intensively inquire into the subtle materiality of all things in existence. His work comes to life through a dialogue with the energy of the material at hand, moving back and forth across a dichotomy between the shaping of matter and the channelling of energy. The organic shapes of his work, are both the result of his artistic skill and the flow of the material itself.

The natural form, is also the basis for the sculptures and installations of Tanja Smeets (1963, NL, based in Utrecht). She explores the growth process of organic matter, treating her material as if it were a living being. Like invasive parasites, they form a poetic, seemingly naturally formed layer over the surface, entering in an intimate dialogue with the architectural surroundings. Her materials are often common objects used in daily life, raising questions about the value of these items and consumerism. This contrasts sharply with the environments the installations are presented in. The tension that arises between this matter-of-fact presence on the one hand and the imminent danger of a growing organism on the other, plays an important role in her work.

Similarly, Natasha Rijkhoff’s (1994, NL, based in Rotterdam) sculptures and fountains bring about an unearthly and unsettling feeling, through a related form of tension as created by Tanja Smeets. Her creatures, touching on both the figurative and abstract, cause a feeling of displacement, while at the same time being recognizable. The water flowing from Rijkhoff’s fountain heads, placed in the green enclosure, brings about a feeling of serenity in its reference to the garden of earthly delights.

Where water fills a central position in the work of Natasha Rijkhoff, almost every natural element lies at the core of the sculptures by Eirik Jahnsen (1985, NO, based in Groningen). Through a continuous process that deals with material transformations, movement and our perception of what we see and feel, his work takes shape. Using basic elements and tools such as fire, water and steel, Eirik examines the very fundamentals of nature and our primal human behaviour. He is concerned with the very essence of what makes us human: the ability to make, build and shape our environment, but also the power to destroy.

• Read more about Eirik Jahnsen • Kokou Ferdinand Makouvia.

17.07.21 – 27.06.21: Amsterdam Art Week: