Opening Sunday, September 11 15:00
The works of Arjan van Arendonk are a real feast for the eyes and let themselves be best described as colorful, floral compositions. An embroidered kingfisher flits around between thickly painted floral motifs. Who looks better sees that Van Arendonk uses printed fabrics as the base for his paintings. He transforms them into a real work of art and seeks for the tension between uniqueness and mass product.
With several interventions Van Arendonk affects the endless repetition within the printed fabric. He covers parts, saves motives and adds motifs. Parts are painted and often he uses silicone mixed with color pigments which gives a wonderful three-dimensional effect. We discover embroidered birds fly inside the painting or partly embroidered flowers, sometimes with the unfinished wires still visible. The repetitive pattern fascinates him, but by his personal brushwork, which is never exactly the same, he breaks with the rigid regularity. The hand of the artist is always visible.
The industrial motif is as it were, isolated from its context and elevated to an artwork. Yet Van Arendonk will not oppose the industrial nature of the substance. The motifs have something attractive, referring to his wealth, abundance, sensuality. He can’t simply choose a fabric, but he searches intensively for beautiful, technically clever exported fabrics. Since they are not merely the bearer of his paintings but also the reason to further manipulate the fabric, giving it an extra dimension. Just this rich interplay between art and design makes the work of Arjan van Arendonk interesting.
The work of Arjan van Arendonk is represented in Groninger Museum, Groningen, Museum Bommel van Dam, Venlo, Noord Brabants Museum, ’s Hertogenbosch, Museum SMS, ’s Hertogenbosch, Museum Jan Cunen, Oss, Nederlands Textielmuseum, Tilburg, DELA, Enexis, ABN AMRO, Van Lansschot Bankiers, Delta Lloyd, Gasunie Groningen, Hyatt Regency Düsseldorf and several private collections in the Netherlands and abroad.