Kees Goudzwaard : Light Matter
Nunu Fine Art New York is delighted to announce “Light Matter,” the first solo exhibition of Dutch artist Kees Goudzwaard in the New York gallery, showcasing sixteen paintings produced over the last three years. Goudzwaard (b. 1958), lives and works between Antwerp, Belgium, and Reusel, Netherlands, and has continued to develop his distinctive trompe-l’oeil style in his latest works.
“Light Matter” presents a series of Gouzwaard’s recent paintings that carry on his investigation at the intersections of perception, materiality, and abstraction. At first glance, his works may appear as simple, minimal color studies—composed of seemingly straightforward arrangements of paper and tape—but, upon closer inspection, these pieces reveal themselves to be carefully executed trompe l’oeil paintings. Beyond mere representations of everyday objects, the works are layered, mimetic translations of hand-made constructions into a painterly space. They invite the viewer to slow down, inhabit the present moment, and reflect on the interaction between what is seen and what is experienced beyond the surface.
At the core of Goudzwaard's work is a process of transformation, where he shifts from one materiality to another, from physical space to conceptual space. Each painting begins with a model made from paper, transparent acetates, and tape, arranged over a colored background, which is then painted to maintain the exact scale and proportions of the original model. As a blueprint for the paintings, the model is fragile and temporary. Over time, the models disintegrate, while the paintings endure, preserving and extending the concept of the original structure. Through a subtle rhythm of colors, forms, volumes, and structures, the final image binds materiality and figuration to pure color abstraction. In creating each representation twice, first as a “searcher,” then as a “protector” or documentarian, the artist is able to explore the same idea from different angles and at different levels of abstraction.
Goudzwaard’s practice engages with 17th-century Dutch still life painting, modernist abstraction, and the conceptual concerns of postmodern collage. Beyond these references, the artist is seeking the poetics and romanticizing the fundamentals of the act of painting. In turn, Goudzwaard’s paintings become both a visual metaphor and a spatial representation as they bring your attention to the surface of the piece while, at the same time, referencing a space beyond the painted layers. In these dynamic works, the various forms within the compositions vie for attention, shifting in relation to one another. The specter of the original model is implicated in the movement, ever changing in the eyes of the viewer. Thus, these paintings strike a delicate balance between the material reality and the imagined possibilities of the space depicted.
“Light Matter” is an open invitation for visitors to engage with the space between the seen and the felt. Goudzwaard’s paintings aim to create a public space of collective reflection in the “unhindered wordless look” and the present permanence of each image.
ABOUT KEES GOUDZWAARD
Kees Goudzwaard was born in 1958 in Utrecht (NL), currently lives and works between Antwerp, Belgium, and Reusel, Netherlands. Goudzwaard has had solo exhibitions at S.M.A.K. Ghent (BE), Museum of Modern Art, Arnhem (NL) and Stedelijk Museum, Schiedam (NL). His work was included in several group shows at Museum Kunst Palast, Kröller-Müller Museum, Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts in Paris and amongst others. Goudzwaard’s work can be found in the permanent collections of S.M.A.K. Gent (BE), Museum Kunst Palast Düsseldorf (DE), Collectie Nederlandsche Bank (NL) and the Rubell Family Collection Miami (US), amongst others.