Graduation Show 2019

Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam proudly presents the work of 165 fine art and design graduates during its annual Graduation Show from Wednesday July 3 to Sunday July 7.

The graduates, coming from fourteen departments, show work of a great diversity with regard to approach, thematic focus, presentation and intentionality. There are graduates relating to the big questions of our time, like Rik Koster, who speculates on the effects of climate change and spectacularly visualises the emission of a car, or Asia Kislev who investigated how to balance and adapt identity in relation to place when she commissioned a carpenter in Armenia to build her a loom, a new experience to both.

The Graduation Show encapsulates works that whisper like the subtle projects of Tim Neutel and works that set the pulse of every audience member racing—like the rhythmic music performances of Jo Hedegaard’s band The John Baldessaris, featuring himself as a guest performer impersonating various famous artists.

Hours: Wednesday 4–9pm, Thursday–Friday 11am–9pm, Saturday 11am–8pm, Sunday 11am–4pm

Special events
Saturday, July 6, 4pm: Announcement winners GRA Awards
Sunday, July 7, 4pm: Diploma ceremony (invite only)

Keep an eye on our website for further updates!

Rik Koster (Architectural Design)
Starting point of the dystopian triptych Future Clouds? is Rik Koster’s fascination for our fossil fuel based society. Koster explores how the invention of the car has not only changed our energy consumption, but also the mobility and speed of our daily lives and the infrastructure of the entire planet. His work Cloud 1 features a redesigned Twingo generating so much pollution that the driver literally drives a cloud of smog.

Asia Kislev (TXT (Textile))
When Asia Kislev travelled to Armenia, the country her Russian mother moved to after her marriage, she commissioned a carpenter to build her a horizontal loom, a device she loves but which is impossible to find in Armenia since textile factories were dismantled after the USSR collapsed. Guiding the carpenter gave her a new understanding of the loom, and made him increasingly enthusiast. The documentation of their interaction became a project of its own.

Tim Neutel (Fine Arts)
The work of Tim Neutel revolves along a movement that is ephemeral, constantly fluctuating between too close and too far. Questioning intentionality, it explores what it takes to notice a work and then recognise it as such, causing a delay to take place. One of Neutel’s works is perhaps not even exactly located at the Graduation Show, or anywhere in particular—maybe it is broadening the exhibition space, displacing it, faraway in a circling movement?

Jo Hedegaard (Fine Arts)
Among other works, Jo Hedegaard conceived the band The Baldessaris, who will play their funky rhythms on the roof of the entrance of the Rietveld building. Hedegaard wants to energise the audience right at the doorstep of the Graduation Show, as an upbeat mood is vital for being receptive, and neither art nor life should be boring. Being aware of, and feeling part of an arthistorical generational exchange is equally important as sheer excitement.

The design of the Graduation Show campaign
The Graduation Show campaign is created by Graphic Design graduates Thibault Froissant, Loup Lopez and Cleo Tsw. Their explanation on the concept: “We attempt to translate contemporary concepts of symbolism and orality into a typographic proposal. Our variable font is akin to a ‘mechanical voice’ capable of articulating various ‘visual tones,’ like trying to speak with an electric toothbrush in your mouth. Paired with bright orange and deep purple, the two extreme states of this font typographically represent these mechanical-vocal articulations, whilst the intermittent states that lie in-between act as murmurs, warbles or mumbles. In this way, our letters and their more abstract instances are also symbols of distilled literacies.”