During Art Antwerp 2024, we will present a solo booth with work by Dutch artist and Rijksakademie alumnus Fiona Lutjenhuis (1991).
At the fair, we will present a new series of her signature room dividers filled with her haunting fantasy world. A world that is spiritual, dreamy, sometimes humorous, but also grim. Inspired by religious triptychs, they offer a version of paradise that begins recognisably, for example with an image of Mary or the lamentation of Christ. She then introduces other customs, such as the tradition of dressing up on days on the border between life and death (dia de la muerta, Halloween), depicting plants and flowers associated with death and then moving into occult symbols like crop circles and UFOs and personal memories.
These room screens are complemented by a series of drawings that respond to the screens in visual language. A wind chime can also be seen and heard, referring to the esoteric. Together with a handmade scent, especially created for the presentation, this offers an overall concept that takes you into the artist's world.
About the artist
Fiona Lutjenhuis’ work moves from installations to artist books and from commissioned works to self initiated projects. Her speculative imagery fits perfectly in the contemporary discourse on a post positivist society. In every image we can feel the humour and courage to dive into worlds without strongholds.
Being raised in a cult she grew up with ideas about the world completely different from her contemporaries. Leaving her family quite young she gradually came to terms with this upbringing and found a way to take it on as a topic. In a sense you could say she’s ahead of a lot of us in being intimate with convictions very alien to common knowledge. Secret societies, mixtures of sci-fi and esoterism, beings from other planets interfering with our world, she heard it all as a child and developed a strong autonomous rationality to balance it.
The participation of Galerie Fleur & Wouter is made possible by the Mondriaan Fund; the public incentive fund for the visual arts and cultural heritage.
