Wilfried Lentz Rotterdam

Karel Martens, Colours on the Beach, April 21st – June 17th, 2018

 

Wilfried Lentz Rotterdam is very proud to host Colours on the Beach, a solo exhibition by Karel Martens, who has recently joined the gallery’s program. The artist, graphic designer and tutor (b. 1939) can be characterized as the godfather of contemporary Dutch graphic design. His autonomous work has also gained much attention internationally, with recent solo shows in New York, Kunstverein Munchen and Design museum Gent and an upcoming show at Platform L in Seoul. He will show a selection of his recent installation, digital works, kinetic work and letterpress monoprints.

The title, Colours on the Beach, is connected to Martens’ large-scale commission of the same name in Le Havre, France (2017), in which he devised a coded rhythm with which to paint the traditionally white beach cabins that form a distinct part of the Le Havre’s cityscape. One of those cabins is installed in the gallery for this exhibition. The artist writes: “For the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the city, I proposed the plan to give [the cabins] a colorful expression: stripes of 10 different colors and of 6 different width will be painted on the visible faces of the cabins. I see it as a kind of choreography, a composition of the whole panorama, with all the cabins. A unity through diversity.” The complex algorithmic composition, based on the city’s founding decree as written by King Francis I, was developed with researchers of the University of Le Havre’s Computing Laboratory of Information Processing and Systems (LITIS) and members of La Faironnerie, a lab which works on the link between science and art.

Following the thread of motion so inherent in Martens’ work, Icon Viewer (2015) is a live-projected image, capturing the exterior scene of the cabin and projecting it simultaneously, the moving image made up of a multitude of vector-based spinning icons, zooming in seemingly infinitely, through a device operated by the viewer.

Martens’ monoprint works are a long-standing occupation in his practice. Printed with a bookbinders’ press, using ink on found objects with discarded index or catalogue cards, these are an almost daily experiment with colour and form, producing unique compositions that bear Martens’ unmistakable visual energy, and continuous motion. These are combined with several of his Clockworks (2005-ongoing), kinetic works that Martens has developed by modifying existing clock mechanisms to power three abstract discs.

In the office is Martens’ work Guest Book (2004), where visitors are invited to take an instant symbol-generated self-portrait that can be printed and taken home.

The opening will take place on Saturday, April 21st from 5 – 7pm. The exhibition runs until June 17, 2018 The gallery is open Friday through Sunday from 1 – 6pm and by appointment. For further information and visuals, please contact the gallery: office@wilfriedlentz.com or +31(0)104126459. With thanks to Elodie Boyer, Jean-Francois Chrochemore and Diederik Martens