Dirty Minimalism and Absolute Moron

Thomas Rentmeister / Erkka Nissinen

29 Nov 2008
10 Jan 2009

“Dirty Minimalism” was Ursula Panhans-Bühler’s invention to characterize Thomas Rentmeister’s art. Not interested in the clean, industrial look of Minimalism this artist obviously wanted to touch a formal level. The smooth and seductive polyester sculptures that made Rentmeister popular in the 1990s intertwined with daily consumerist products like chocolate past (Nutella), milk and baby-cream (Penaten-creme). He lifted these daily products to a level of the archetype where he could work with their universal meaning though unmistakably referring to highly personal emotions and memories.

A retrospect at the start of one’s career – admittedly that sounds a little paradoxical. But not quite so in the absurdist universe of Erkka Nissinen: in a place where Arnold Schönberg looks like a mix between Yoda and Leatherface, Karlheinz Stockhausen is a foulmouthed ordinary yoghurt-thief, where a prostitute, a cook and a panda bear are abducted by an institution which confronts them with their ethical and moral positions within society, and where one is treated on a lecture about the social construction of reality given by a man himself not part of either reality or of any social construction, in that place a retrospect may as well take on the meaning of a preview.

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'Vantaa' (2007) by Erkka Nissinen at Ellen de Bruijne gallery . -

With:
Thomas Rentmeister, Erkka Nissinen

Thomas Rentmeister

After Rentmeister had assembled refrigerators into gigantic blocks, filling every hole with baby-cream he turned these “white ware” sculptures into literally white “ware” piles of cotton bulbs, tampons, sheets and pillowcases, underwear, different brands of washing-powder, soap, sugar and sugar cubes . In the 2005 solo show in museum Boijmans van Beuningen we could recently witness these formal sculptures and images out of consumer goods: “Minimal Pop”.

Thomas Rentmeister made a selection of new works for his third solo-show at Ellen de Bruijne Projects, ranging from a shiny milk-white polyester floor-sculpture, to a trashy found-object reminiscent of leftovers of a successful celebration of “something”; From a wooden box with a variety of cotton wool products to a constellation of pipes which reminds most of a giant “walker” (rollator). Be prepared to meet a humorous and surprising, concentrated and serious Rentmeister show on the 29th of November!

Erkka Nissinen

Erkka Nissinen (Finland, 1975) lives and works between Helsinki, Hong Kong and Amsterdam. He just finished his period as a resident at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. Some of his most recent shows include Kluuvi Gallery in Helsinki, 1a Space in Hong Kong and Lombard/Freid projects in New York.

During the weekend of the opening Nissinen will present his latest work – still in production at the moment - during RijksakademieOPEN, the open studio program of the Rijksakademie:
Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 November, from 11:00 to 19:00, Rijksakademie, Sarphatistraat 470, Amsterdam.


Opening Saturday 29 November 17-19 h.
Exhibition 29 November – 10 January 2009
Gallery hours: Tu-Fri. 11 – 18 h. Sat. 13 – 18 h. 1st Sunday of the month 14 – 17 h.
The gallery is closed from Sunday December 21st until Tuesday January 6th.
Go to [www.edbprojects.nl/ Ellen de Bruijne Projects.