Artist: Wieske Wester
Exhibition title: double you double you
Venue: Dürst Britt & Mayhew, The Hague, The Netherlands
Date: September 11 – October 29, 2016
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Dürst Britt & Mayhew
Note: Essay written by Dominic van den Boogerd can be found here
Dürst Britt & Mayhew is delighted to present Dutch artist Wieske Wester’s first exhibition at the gallery.
A cabbage, a bunch of bananas or a whiskey glass. The strength that lies in simple and everyday objects is often the starting point for Wieske Wester’s work. These are images without masks that appeal by their lack of visual violence and spectacle, but are nevertheless characterized by a certain degree of ambiguity. Wester’s paintings and drawings depict the human desire for identity, yet are peppered with references to aggression and sexuality. Wrestlers, genitals and figures that hover between beast and man regularly pass in review. For Wester the physical act of painting and drawing is the most direct way to capture the fluidity and forcefulness of the human spirit.
Immediately after obtaining her Bachelor’s degree from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, Wieske Wester was selected for a two-year working period at De Ateliers in Amsterdam. In 2008 she was nominated for the Buning Brongers Prizes in Amsterdam and for the Focus Abengoa Painting Prize in Seville, Spain. In 2014 she enrolled at the HISK in Ghent to place herself into a new critical context and to further develop her chosen themes and imagery. Wieske Wester lives and works in Ghent and The Hague.
