KAV54 Known/Unknown Journey

Hong Kong: Nov 1 — Nov 11 2019

Press Release

Wangsim assists in organizing and the curation of the solo exhibition of Merijn Kavelaars in Hong Kong. The presentation features a series of canvases and paper works with a handsome mix of acrylic paint and Chinese ink, which dive deeper into his artist experience as a resident artist of Young Artist in Residence@V54 as well as an urban wanderer in the city.

With exuberant colors, organic forms and abstract intoxication throughout the various spaces of V54, Merijn Kavelaars invites the viewers into a rare and uneasy process of getting to know/unknown a new place.

The heart of the exhibition is about celebrating diverse culture and unleashed creativity and most importantly how art-making (un)reacts to an alien environment. As a visual artist with an international background, Kavelaarshas traveled intensively and has had exhibitions in various countries across the globe such as The Netherlands, France, Denmark, South Africa, Iran and China. Achieving more and more control throughout the countless art trips and endeavors, he catches, each time, the equal doze of excitement and bizarreness when arriving in a brand-new city: savoring the local eats, mastering no foreign verbal languages yet catching sights of the visual ones; engaging with the cultures, or staying hidden from the hustles and bustles. Kavelaars balances the known/unknown carrying “a ghostly role in the society” – just as his works, the experience is almost abstract. Unlike many of the masters in the field whose works are judged by a consciousness that the works of art is inevitably connected to existing space and are then gradually turning into “it”, Kavelaars’ canvases and papers spring out of the decision that the connection is carefully measured or rejected.

The majority of the works in the exhibition carry out poetic abstract indication with organic forms emerging from patterns of the current moment and the daily objects out of the sidewalk of Hong Kong. The artist’s onsite studio will also be involved as part of the exhibition presentation to offer a rare peek of the artist at work, blurring line between the studio space and public sphere.