Unfair: Art in a Changing World of Work

Exhibition (from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm)

Art can fill a wall, or it can change a whole space. Artists can play a leading role in defining our surroundings, contributing to an inspiring workspace or adapting radical new ideas into the daily working environment. Focussing on up-and-coming and renown artists who take a lead in shaping new standards, the exhibition plunges visitors into a world where artists address their environment. Their works, whether it is by expanding on our physical experience of spaces, playing with the function or form of everyday materials or by shifting the attention to new perspectives and current global issues, inspires us to actively engage with our environment and welcome new ideas.

With works by, amongst others; Elsemarijn Bruys, Lou-Lou van Staaveren, Willem de Haan, Koos Buster, Gilleam Trapenberg, Thomas Trum, Nazif Lopulissa and Irieé Zamblé
Curation: unfair.nl

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ARTISTS

Elsemarijn Bruys
Elsemarijn Bruys’ (1989) strong curiosity for sensory perception translates into a hybrid artistic practice, oscillating between sculptures and architectural interventions, and strongly influenced by her background in fashion design and theatre. Air is the main medium Bruys works with, viewed as an collaborator to shape and grant freedom to her work. With it, rectangles become round, spaces are filled and occupied, objects breathe in and out, visitors are subtly flattened and perspectives become deformed. The introduction of air fills her objects with a performative quality, while the change in form it brings about is simultaneously at the core of her work.

Lou-Lou van Staaveren
Lou-Lou van Staaveren (1990) comes from a family of flower farmers and has always been drawn to plants and greenery. Over the past years, the garden has become the arena of her photography practice, serving as both the playground and laboratory. For Van Staaveren, gardening and photography stand surprisingly close: both the gardener and photographer operate with similar control, observing on one hand and intervening on the other. Like a gardener shaping a landscape, she creates new realities through images, constructing paradises and utopias. The artist’s work sparks a sense of eerie wonder, encouraging the viewer to question their anthropocentric position and the consequences of idealising and controlling our natural environment.

Willem de Haan
Willem De Haan (1996) challenges and undermines the socially conditioned and politically determined rules of everyday locations. By adding artificial elements in a convincing yet uncanny manner his works exert direct influence on daily situations. These suggestive sculptural interventions reference the influence of props on fictional scenarios in film and theatre. In other words, De Haan wishes for his works to function as a tribute to the already confusing moments and situations we experience in our daily lives. ‘A good tribute does not explain its subject, it just strengthens it.’

Koos Buster
The works of Koos Buster (1991) illustrate the search for a certain “doltish perfection”. They often represent things otherwise trivial, but in the world of Koos Buster could, and maybe even should, also be celebrated. Whenever an idea pops up, he starts sketching. While those sketches are often only a first step into the process, ultimately leading to ceramic objects, he likes to regard them as potential finished works in and by themselves. Fully established within the sketching phase. “The innocence and messiness of a quick sketch has elements I like to see in a final piece of work as well.”

Gilleam Trapenberg
Born and raised in Curaçao, visual artist Gilleam Trapenberg (1991) now lives and works in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Orbiting his homeland, his creative projects look closely at the fabric of Curaçao’s social landscape, probing at the island’s many paradoxes. He searches beneath the portrayals and tropes of Caribbean life that dominate (Western) media cycles, using the camera to create necessary counter-images. Occasionally, though, Trapenberg is himself seduced by the allure of the exported picture-postcard; on European shores, nostalgia and longing take hold, perspectives drift, and memories of home are easily romanticised. For the artist, this experience of a perpetual limbo between two distinct places – connected by the fraught legacies of colonialism, enduring flows of goods and people, or even the mass tourism industry – is a growing focal point of his work.

Thomas Trum
‘It’s so big you have to take a distance!’ Thomas Trum (1989) works at the intersection of art and design. His approach is abstract and analytical, experimenting with different painting techniques and surfaces. He works within a self-imposed, restrictive framework that exclusively focusses on line and colour, spanning various scales from paper to facades. He develops unconventional tools including giant felt-tip pens and custom-built rotating spraying machines. Intrigued by large vehicles such as agricultural machinery, which operate with maximum in a rhythmic pattern, Trum experiments with these techniques to continuously discover new ways to create images. The extensive preparations contrast with the execution of the final work, which sometimes only takes a couple of minutes. An interaction between human and tool, like a choreography, for applying the line on the surface in the best way possible.

Nazif Lopulissa
The work of Nazif Lopulissa (1991) aims to embody the liminal feeling of his “in-between” state. Personal narratives regarding migration are described through an organic formal vocabulary that fuses different painterly traditions. Though he employs techniques and materials drawn from autobiographical contexts, he’s equally interested in challenging abstract visual languages to communicate across cultural borders. Pushing the boundaries of painting, he hides and reveals his (family) history and erases and creates different futures. By using bleach, he gives glimpses of what was and what can be. In this way movement is captured.

Irieé Zamblé
Iriée Zamblé (1995) is a visual artist, based in Amsterdam. Zamblé explores the existing norms surrounding portraits by means of drawing and painting. She draws inspiration from concepts dissecting the notion of Black identity, her West-African heritage and everyday life. Drawing from those she sees on the streets, friends and acquaintances, the fictive people appearing in Zamblé’s paintings are signified by a poised aura. This is shown through expression, fashion and language. In the paintings of Zamblé it is a means of gaining control over one’s own body and narrative, stemming from a lack thereof. Focussing on the details of the painted faces in Zamblé’s work, she makes them into bold and authentic figures, painting them with a sharp eye for self-expression.

UNFAIR

Unfair, an artist-led art platform, was founded in 2012 by three artists who wanted to improve the cultural infrastructure in the Netherlands. We have been dedicated to promoting emerging contemporary artists for over a decade, working with over 600 artists in more than 70 events. Unfair connects you directly to contemporary artists, their stories and creations.

Unfair Editions is a curated art platform bridging the world of art fairs to new generations of art buyers. The carefully curated selection includes a wide range of art forms: prints, paintings, ceramics, sculptures, and much more. With prices ranging from €5 to €950, our editions collection represents the best of the artists Unfair have worked with over the past decade. Whether you’re a first-time buyer or a seasoned collector you’ll discover something special in our diverse offerings.