RITUALS & INCANTATIONS

We are happy to invite you to the exhibition ‘RITUALS & INCANTATIONS’ presenting works of Gijs Assmann, Jonat Deelstra and Rinke Nijburg.

The exhibition will open Saturday the 30th of January 2021 at 18:00 via the Instagram account of GoMulan Gallery where the participating artists will talk briefly about their work in the exhibition. The show will run through Sunday the 7th of March 2021.

Gijs Assmann (1966), Jonat Deelstra (1991) and Rinke Nijburg (1964) have been invited respectively by Sander Creman, Mulan Go and Marie Jeanne de Rooij because of their fascination for different and diverse cultural and religious rituals and incantations. In their art practice all three artists love to take a closer look at the deep-seated human urge to survive as an individual but also as a social being, disrupting often obsolete, or attractive ‘strange’ rituals, shifting social codes and so called ‘civilized’ habits, and trying to evoke new incantations.

Sander Creman and Marie Jeanne de Rooij collaborated earlier at Gallery Nouvelles Images (NI), the renowned gallery based in The Hague which closed its doors in 2018. Mulan Go worked as a trainee at Nouvelles images almost to the very end.

GIJS ASSMANN (Roosendaal, 1966) will show in ‘RITUALS & INCANTATIONS’ sculptures and drawings made during the period 2017-2020 which refer to human emotions, birth, death and transience, in short, the facts of life. Exploring biblical themes along with everyday rituals result in works varying from raw and pervasive to sensitive and poetic. The virgin Mary envisioned in layered glass sculptures next to drawings and collages with sex, love and sin as subjects.
In Gijs Assmann’s own words: “I see creating as a sensory and hands-on adventure in which personal, human and therefore societal values are at stake.” Assmann is a versatile artist who doesn’t shy away from extensive research and exploring new ways to apply materials such as bronze, aluminum, tin, wood, textiles, ceramics and glass for his sculptures and spatial installations. Acrylic paint, watercolor, pencil and pen are the basic tools and materials for his drawings and collages. Besides being a visual artist, he is also a jewelry designer.

Gijs Assmann studied at AKI - Enschede (1985-1990), Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam (1991-1993), and the European Ceramic Workcentre Support at ’s-Hertogenbosch (1995 + 1997).
In 1998 Assmann won the Jeanne Oosting Award for Watercolor.

JONAT DEELSTRA   (Haarlem, 1991) presents in the ‘RITUALS & INCANTATIONS’-exhibition a new series called, ‘Uitvaartcentrum de Noordzee’ (‘Funeral Home North Sea’) made of ceramic sculptures and oil-paintings. The series introduces a new futuristic and ingenious perspective on burying human remains.

Deelstra suggests to make funeral home structures in the North Sea on which coral and sea anemones can grow: “Due to an increasing warmer climate an enormous load of coral has the chance to develop in the next hundred years in the North Sea. Since overfishing left the sea literally almost barren, these organisms cannot settle yet. By placing structures in the sea, we can take care of rebirth.” The first effort to achieve this aim occurred in 2018 when wind turbines were built in the North Sea. So just imagine that in between these wind turbines a coral reef will arise together with a new funeral ritual. Over more than a decade Deelstra lives and works in Amsterdam. In 2017 Deelstra received his Bachelor degree in Illustration at HKU. Since then, he mainly works as a painter, but he is also interested in exploring new materials and so he is also building installations, he draws and makes woodcuts and ceramics and he creates animations. Deelstra’s work is socially infused and reflects on current issues such as migration, discrimination and climate change.

 Jonat Deelstra studied at Hogeschool voor de Kunsten (HKU), Utrecht (2014 - 2017).
Earlier his work was shown at several galleries and Big Art (2020). He worked at residencies such as GinDS residency, Broedplaats Bogota. At this moment Deelstra’s work is also shown at Krona Museum (Uden).

RINKE NIJBURG (Lunteren, 1964) focuses in his work on the question what it means exactly to be a human being who seeks to relate to his bestial instincts on the one hand and the divine and the cosmic powers on the other hand. Religion therefore is an important source of interest for his paintings, drawings, mixed media works and installations. In his work Nijburg forges cultural tokens and heritage in the broadest sense - religion, mythology, philosophy, comics, film, fairytales but also social current affairs – into a fascinating cosmology all his own.

Although raised a Protestant, Nijburg finds abundant inspiration in the iconography and ornate traditions of Catholicism and also during the last few years in Eastern ideas and beliefs such as Buddhism and Hinduism.
Rituals and incantations are familiar territory for Nijburg, for astonishing mystical gestures, postures and scenes in painting fascinate Rinke Nijburg: “The title RITUALS rhymes remarkably well with all these on-the-lap-sitting scenes … Keep in mind that the Pietà, Balthus’ ‘The Guitar lesson’ and the Gnadenstuhl have been occupying me for a long time.” (NB: A ‘mercy seat’ is a representation of the Holy Trinity in the Christian iconography.)
Because what do all these and other rituals captured on canvas with paint convey to the viewer and the maker of these images, Nijburg asks himself. What stories these old, new and updated rituals which we use, are telling us about our role in a possibly mystical whole in which rituals exorcise chaos and grant the notion of not-knowing-everything a special beauty and comfort?
 

Rinke Nijburg studied at Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten, Arnhem (1982-1987), Ateliers Arnhem (1990-1991) and Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam (1993-1994). He was one of the winners of the Koninklijke Subsidie voor Vrije Schilderkunst (1992), Buning Brongers Prijzen (1994), Prix de Rome (1998) and Gelderland Grafiekprijs (1999).

RITUELEN & BEZWERINGEN | RITUALS & INCANTATIONS:
Gijs Assmann | Jonat Deelstra | Rinke Nijburg
30 January to 7 March 2021

Opening hours (with reservation)
Thursday 16:00 – 19:00
Friday 16:00 – 19:00
Saturday 12:00 – 18:00
Sunday 12:00 – 18:00
And by appointment

GOMULANGALLERY
Van Ostadestraat 43-a, Amsterdam
www.gomulangallery.com

Further information:
Gijs Assmann: Sander Creman,
06 16 55 90 98, sandercreman.adp@gmail.com
Jonat Deelstra: Mulan Go,
06 18 98 98 15, info@gomulangallery.com
Rinke Nijburg: Marie Jeanne de Rooij,
06 54 36 13 90, mjf@xs4all.nl