Sidi El Karchi / Bas de Wit
11 April – 27 June 2010
Avenue Céramique 250
Maastricht – NL
T 00 31 43 32 90 190
info [at] bonnefanten.nl
El Karchi is trying out the time-honoured genre of portrait painting and has something of the ‘fine painter’ about him, whereas De Wit demonstrates daring and bravura in his paintings and sculptures, bringing together or ‘assembling’ all kinds of things. El Karchi and De Wit have a preference for figurative representation, especially of the human figure and its personifications.
The (double) solo gives an impression of the individual development of both El Karchi and De Wit.
*
It was during his studies that Sidi El Karchi decided to concentrate solely on the genre of portrait painting. The emphasis is on portraits, of loved ones, of himself or occasionally of idols such as Michael Jackson. The subdued, symbolic portraits of El Karchi, in which he keeps portraying a different persona, force the gaze inwards and demand a type of concentration that requires soul-searching rather than formal analysis. The largish size of the canvas on which El Karchi keeps searching for an attractive balance between figure and background, and depiction and paint, also contributes to the increasing inapproachability of the figure portrayed. El Karchi’s emblematic self-portraits form a special part of his early oeuvre.
The grotesque ‘motley crew’ that populate the sculptures and paintings of Bas de Wit, on the other hand, take possession of the space as only uninvited visitors can, throwing in one dirty joke after another without a care in the world. As far as his visual arsenal is concerned, Bas de Wit is a glutton. He is also an all-rounder – a painter and sculptor who can switch from one medium to the other with the utmost ease. A nervous chaos winds its way through his work.
De Wit shows us a hilarious, slightly ominous and mostly politically incorrect world of shadows. His assembled sculptures are created through an associative process and have enormous dynamism, as if they could jump right off their plinth. What distinguishes this artist from the rest is his tempestuous imagination and conceptual power. Comically, provokingly and sometimes even poignantly, De Wit puts everything into perspective and leaves it open as far as possible, with regard to both form and content.
*
Sidi El Karchi (1975) lives and works in Maastricht and Sittard. He studied at the School of Fashion in Sittard and at the Fine Arts Academy in Maastricht. His work has been recently shown at the Steendrukkerij Amsterdam, 2010; Open Studio’s. I.S.C.P., New York, 2009.
Bas de Wit (1977) lives and works in Maastricht. He studied at the Fine Arts Academy in Maastricht and at the HISK in Antwerp. His work has been recently shown at Volta Basel and at Figge Von Rosen Gallery, 2009. www.basdewit.com
Bonnefantenmuseum
Avenue Céramique 250
Maastricht – NL
T 00 31 43 32 90 190
info@bonnefanten.nl
open Tuesday to Sunday
11 am / 5 pm
