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PRESS RELEASE

Jasper Krabbé

“The bed, the couch, the chair”

March 22 - April 21, 2007

Opening: Thursday, March 22nd from 6-8pm

Gallery Hours:
Tuesday - Friday, 10am to 6pm
Saturday, 10am to 5pm

The Brenda Taylor Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new works by Jasper Krabbé . This exhibition is entitled “the bed, the couch, the chair” and focuses on memory, not only as a function but also a mental process. Krabbé is able to visually express these aspects of memory through his work. His painting process is modeled after the same process the brain uses to bring a memory into consciousness. In particular, “the bed, the couch, the chair” emphasizes interior living space as a stable component in memory. This entire series was made in one location, in Krabbé 's home (in a confined space between the bed, the chair, and the couch). Inanimate objects which occupy this living space unconsciously take a surrogate role for experiences; a bed, a couch, and a chair are objects that signify comfort.

Krabbé ’s current works are on cardboard which is then pasted on canvas. He believes that cardboard is the perfect ground on which to paint because of its neutral qualities -- neutral in the sense that it is material that has little or no symbolic meaning, a blank slate, if you will. In this way the artist states that it is, “a very democratic material that can serve as a ground to project memories onto that hopefully will resonate a universal feeling associated with loss.”

The use of watercolors on cardboard by Krabbé creates an interesting visual effect. It appears as if the image is hovering above the material. It gives an impression which is strongly reminiscent of features of human memory: never sequential, always wedded to other memories, always associated with objects, without logic, distorted, yet lucid. But the association with memory displayed in his work is not without a wider significance. It points to how we experience existence itself, to the hazily defined yet subjectively real phenomenon of consciousness. Something of its essence is conveyed, namely, that it is derived from the concrete and physical, yet remains transient and ephemeral. While Krabbé ’s work draws inspiration from memory, it challenges us to look more deeply into our own perceptions to discover the artistic nature of memory itself.

Jasper Krabbé was educated at the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, where he graduated Cum Laude in painting and printmaking. To further his education he also attended Cooper Union where he advanced his technique in the arts.