Cor van Dijk (born 1952) is a Dutch sculptor renowned for his minimalist geometric steel sculptures. Rooted in mathematical principles and sequences, his work creates complex three-dimensional forms with remarkable precision.
Van Dijk explores mass and space with absolute precision. The seams between the steel components serve as structural boundaries and graphic lines, revealing shifting complexities from different angles. His process leaves no room for error, with every millimetre finalised before production begins. In his more recent works, the dialogue between mass and void becomes even more intimate. By eliminating all traces of technical processing, Van Dijk creates silent, powerful objects that command attention through their stillness and perfect proportions.
Gelah Penn (born 1951) is an American visual artist based in New York and Connecticut. She is recognised for her site-responsive installations and ‘constructed drawings’ that challenge the boundaries between drawing and sculpture. Her complex, multi-layered works use everyday materials to disrupt and respond to architectural spaces.
Since 2022, the Phantom series has centred on large totemic wall pieces defined by a dialogue between gravity and instability. Constructed from light-activated materials such as silkscreen mesh, Mylar and netting, these pieces function as dreamlike semaphores. Their verticality alludes to ancient stone stelae, evoking an imposing figural presence, and the work expands the language of drawing into sculptural space by foregrounding the dualities of substance and immateriality. Through the layering and stretching of synthetic materials, her practice examines visual ambiguity and choreographs events of perceptual unease. Influenced by film noir, these compositions use shadow and mark-making to explore mystery, ranging from the theatrical to the forensic.
Reed Anderson (born 1969) is an American visual artist renowned for his innovative approach to painting, printmaking and textiles. He often explores the tension between rigorous graphic systems and organic spontaneity in his work, utilising repetition and physical manipulation to create layered, complex surfaces.
Anderson’s artistic practice draws on his background in printmaking, popular culture, and painting. At the heart of his current body of work are large pieces of intricately cut paper used as stencils. These stencils are folded and painted upon multiple times to create an image. The paper cut out of these drawings is embellished further and collaged into the larger drawing, while smaller artworks arise from detritus printed elsewhere during the creative process. This growing organic mass, with its interconnections and offshoots, serves as both a map of his creative process and the end product.
Jan Willem van Welzenis, a curator and artist at Barbara-artspace, champions contemporary abstraction. Through international collaborations, he connects established and emerging artistic movements, curating site-specific exhibitions that explore the interplay of light, scale, and materials. His artist-led approach provides a dedicated platform for radical, non-objective art outside the mainstream.
