Frank Ammerlaan
Frank Ammerlaan (born 1979 in Sassenheim) is a Dutch artist who lives and works in London.
Biography
Ammerlaan graduated as an independent artist from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam in 2007. In 2012 he graduated in fine art at the Royal College of Art in London with paintings, sculptures and photography. For his graduation show Ammerlaan won The Land Securities Studio Award. In 2012 he received the Royal Award for Painting, which is handed to the most promising young Dutch painter of that year. From 2012, Ammerlaan also makes video art.[1] Ammerlaan experiments with unusual materials, like galvanised and passivated metals and pulverized meteorite.[2] He exhibited in several museums and galleries in the Netherlands and abroad.[3]
Ammerlaan is one of the founders of the exhibition spaces Horse Move Project Space (2004) and De Service Garage (2007), both situated in Amsterdam. Currently De Service Garage is giving space to seven artists and is run by Benjamin Roth and Daniel Hofstede.
Work
Most characteristic for Ammerlaan's work are his monumental colorful paintings. His oeuvre includes works in which subtle stains of color appear on an otherwise black canvas. The surface seems to be calm from afar, but when you approach it subtly changes.
Ammerlaan's work does not try to provoke emotions. The emphasis lies in showing barely perceptible changes. Another series of colorful paintings are embroidered with thin, shiny, sometimes fluorescent threads, which frame and structure the surface. The fragile threads change color with changing light and sometimes seem to fade into the background. The geometrical patterns of thread create a permeable fence, like a web or weave which you can seemingly get stuck in or hold onto. These works are illuminating and seductive though ultimately deny the viewer access.
In the recent years Frank Ammerlaan has diversified his practice to include sculpture, photography and video. Painting, however, remains his most important medium. His series of small sensitive sculptures, made of different types of conductive metal, form repetitive geometric shapes originating from aerial and antenna structures. The sculptures suggest a biomimicry-related language ready to receive and transmit signals and information.
In 2010 Ammerlaan developed a practice of painting with chemicals. Having done research for a number of years with chemists and scientists he physicalized the phenomenal aesthetics of organic color arrangements – visible on a rainy urban day – in the form of oil spills. The result is extremely detailed, holographic but toxic, and becomes noxious in our contemporary political context.
More work:
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Frank Ammerlaan, 2012, Untitled, Oil on canvas, 81,5 x 56 cm
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Frank Ammerlaan, 2012, Untitled, Oil and thread on canvas, 180 x 160 cm
Prizes and scholarships
- 2013 The Scheffer Award
- 2013 Residency Fondazione MACC Museo d'Arte Conteporanea in Calasetta, Italy
- 2012 Land Securities prize
- 2012 Doha Studio Art prize
- 2012 Royal Award for Painting
- 2011 Nomination Royal Award for Painting
- 2010 Nomination Royal Award for Painting
- 2010 Fund BKVB abroad scholarship (till 2012)
- 2010 Hendrik Muller Fund
- 2009 Nomination Royal Award for Painting
- 2009 Scholarship Fund BKVB
- 2009 Foundation Niemeijer fund
- 2007 Gerrit Rietveld Academie Award for Painting
Exhibitions (selection)
2017
- Particles of Dust, solo exhibition at Upstream Gallery in Amsterdam
- Drawing Biënnale, Londen
2016
- MOONLESS Archived 31 December 2016 at the Wayback Machine, solo exhibition at Bosse & Baum Gallery, Londen
- Sparkling like the surface of the ocean at night, Garage Rotterdam, Rotterdam
- AKZO NOBEL Art Foundation, Amsterdam
2015
- Outside the Wireframe, SIM Galeria, Curitiba, Brazilië
- Transformer, group exhibition at Upstream Gallery, Amsterdam
- The Extended Arms of the Transom, solo exhibition at David Risley Gallery, Kopenhagen
- Faith by Proxy, solo exhibition at Upstream Gallery, Amsterdam
2014
- ABC (Art Berlin Contemporary), met Upstream Gallery, Berlijn
- Christopher Crescent, Brussel
- Reforming Intervals, Laure Genillard, Londen
2013
- The Armory Show, solo met Upstream Gallery in New York
2012
- Painting without Paint, groepstentoonstelling bij David Risley Gallery, Kopenhagen
- Day's End, solotentoonstelling bij Upstream Gallery, Amsterdam
- Koninklijke Prijs voor de Schilderkunst '12, Koninklijk Paleis Amsterdam
- Nature/structure, Upstream Gallery op de Dutch Design Week Eindhoven
- PS, Co/Lab Los Angeles, Verenigde Staten
- Stereopsis, The Drawing Room, Tannery Arts Londen (met en gecureerd door Frank Ammerlaan e.a), Groot-Brittannië
- Land of the Seven Moles, PS Projectspace Amsterdam
- Graduation show, Royal College Of Art, Londen, Groot-Brittannië
- Mapping the Horizon, Upstream Gallery Amsterdam
2011
- Royal Prize of Painting '11, Koninklijk Paleis Amsterdam
- New Space, B&N Gallery, Londen, Groot-Brittannië
- Unlit, Solo show, PS, Amsterdam
- Zomeratelier 2011, CBK Zeeland
- Interim Show, Royal College of Art, Londen, Groot-Brittannië
- Life is Elsewhere, The Crypt Gallery, St Pancreas Church, Londen, Groot-Brittannië
- Pep, Post-Museum, Singapore
2010
- Koninklijke Prijs voor de Schilderkunst ’10, Koninklijk Paleis Amsterdam
- Und#6, Schwartz gallery, Londen, Groot-Brittannië
- Derivation, Skånes konstförening Malmö, Zweden
- Art Blossom, Brug 9, Amsterdam
- Magnitude, Alpineum produzentengalerie, Luzern, Zwitserland
- Amsterdam-Berlin, Forgotten bar, Berlijn, Duitsland
- Marsupial, Supermarket art fair, Kulturhuset Stockholm, Zweden
2009
- Let’s take it outside, ter ere van het tweejarige bestaan van De Service Garage, Amsterdam
- Koninklijke Prijs voor de Schilderkunst ’09, Koninklijk Paleis Amsterdam
- Quantum Vis V, RC De Ruimte & De Service Garage
- UND#5, Nice, Frankrijk
- .NL, DREI, Raum für Gegenwartskunst, Keulen, Duitsland
- Power to the paint, Arti & Amicitiae, Amsterdam
2008
- Koud, De Service Garage Amsterdam
- Three is a nice couple, De Veemvloer Amsterdam
- Uit De Tijd, De service Garage Amsterdam
- 1141, Magnetic field, Galerie Gist Brummen
- Re-understandings, Kunstvlaai 7, De Service Garage Amsterdam
- Frank Ammerlaan & Michael Agacki, Horse Move Project Space Amsterdam
- Clup-ivoor, Art Rotterdam
2007
- De Service Garage Amsterdam
- Jong Talent, Artolive '07, zuiveringshal westergas Amsterdam
- Eindexamententoonstelling, Gerrit Rietveld Academie Amsterdam
- Clup-Ivoor, PAKT Amsterdam
- De Belofte, PAKT Amsterdam
References
- Pressrelease Day's End, Upstream Gallery, 30 November 2012
- Snejana Krasteva, The Alchemy of a perennial threshold
External links
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