ART-PRESENTATION: Marijn van Kreij-Nude in the Studio

Marijn van Kreij’s work includes drawings, paintings, photographs, objects and videos that often refer to the popular and mass culture of the 20th and 21st century. Using written and drawn symbols and forms, he shows us a world in which playfulness prevails and rules are made to be broken. One of his points of departure is the denial of any difference between the expressive power of images and words.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Marres-House for Contemporary Culture Archive

Marijn van Kreij in his solo exhibition “Nude in the Studio” presents hundreds of drawings and gouache paintings, from monumental works on thick watercolor paper to loose series on sketchbook paper, advertising leaflets and other printed matter. He combines these works with sound sculptures made from collected and found materials and a series of stools from his studio. In the summer of 1955, Picasso moved his studio to La Californie, a Belle Époque villa from 1920 situated in the hills surrounding Cannes with a scenic view of the Mediterranean Sea. The large windows and the outlook on a garden with cactuses, eucalyptus and palm trees found their way into Picasso’s paintings. These “Interior landscapes”, as Picasso called them, depict unfinished paintings and sculptures, painters’ materials, musical instruments and miscellaneous objects that he used as props in his work. In the past years, Marijn van Kreij has worked on a series of drawings and paintings modeled after Picasso’s interior landscapes. Reproductions in books form the starting point of a new creation process, focused on the act of drawing and painting. He created the title work of the exhibition “Nude in the Studio” in collaboration with schoolchildren from the Japanese mountain village Kamiyama.

Info: Marres-House for Contemporary Culture. Capucijnenstraat 98, Maastricht, Duration: 30/6-9/9/18, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 12:00-17:00, www.marres.org