Artists in Residence

It's proudly standing on her desk, but still looking for the right home. She lived for many years in Paris and New York and has just returned to her hometown, Amsterdam, where she writes and dreams of the sea.

For the Artists in Residence project, he is writing his first children’s book. “Because of the individualistic Western system I also want to write something for children whereby they learn that “we“ is important as children so often are raised as an individual: the, I, I, I feeling.”

Rosa has become inspired by the long history of the hotel, mainly the St Cecilia convent where it all started back in 1411. “Being the Artist in Residence, I found the idea fascinating to complete one work in a week with the same philosophy my work normally entails - but in this case incorporating the hotel, which also translates to the same philosophy and how we experience the space.”

“Here at The Grand it is wonderful to draw in the Library. It is such a wonderful oasis here. It is as if you can delay time as it feels like a kind of vacuum. What I am working on at the moment is drawings of octopuses. The animals that live in the sea are maybe the animals of which we expect the least because in a way we find it difficult to show empathy towards animals without a soft coat.”

Alferink seeks inspiration in irritation (like the pearl and the oyster). Emotion is his catalyst. In the fashion of the 'classic' Italian designers and architects, Joost decided to add (watercolour) painting to his professional activities.

“The Grand has opened my eyes again in a different way: the building and the architecture are most impressive and very historical. Sometimes, I also look at how something looks graphically and try not to see the depth in it but more so how everything relates towards each other as in a graphic plane. There are many graphic planes in this building and I am trying to create a kind of composition from that.”

“The Grand has opened my eyes again in a different way: the building and the architecture are most impressive and very historical. Sometimes, I also look at how something looks graphically and try not to see the depth in it but more so how everything relates towards each other as in a graphic plane. There are many graphic planes in this building and I am trying to create a kind of composition from that.”

'In fact, though she was trained as one, you can barely call her an architect at all' says Annick Kleizen . 'Her houses just never seem to hold their shape: the walls are fragile, permeable and somewhat ill-defined. Moreover, she makes you aware of their failings - of where sounds leak, the outside world enters and privacy succumbs to neighbors. She deconstructs the solidness of the private shelter and lifts the thin veil of privacy.

Sarah van Sonsbeeck's work is two-sided: on the one hand, she tries to define, defend and extend private space; on the other, she simultaneously reveals the impossibility and perhaps even undesirability of being completely shut off from the world. A case in point is when she tried to contain one cubic meter of silence on the as yet undeveloped plot of land around Museum De Paviljoens in the rapidly developing new town of Almere. One night the reinforced glass cube was smashed with a stone by local youths. She embraced this vandalizing act and renamed the work One Cubic Meter of Broken Silence (2009). Instead of preserving the increasingly rare silence - which, strictly speaking, because of the rustling reeds and chirping insects, was no silence at all - the focus of the work shifted to communication (however violent) and interaction.

Her work focuses on the thin permeable line between interior and exterior - without concern for the façade. This detour brings her to an investigation of a more immaterial side of architecture, in which she scrutinizes all the small elements that determine how we live in our homes, the things the architects cannot control. She amplifies these elements and devises shields against them, but also welcomes the unpredictable and reveals the minute but intimate relationships between people who don't necessarily know each other. Sarah van Sonsbeeck practices architecture after all, of the immaterial - though no less fundamental - kind.'

Sarah van Sonsbeeck (1976) studied architecture at TUDelft (MA) and art at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie (BA). In 2008, 2009 she had a residency at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam. She had solo exhibitons at the Oude Kerk, Amsterdam (2017), Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam (2017). Her work was amongst others on show at De Nederlandsche Bank, Amsterdam (2013), Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam (2013), Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (2012), Museum De Paviljoens, Almere (2009), Musem Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach (2011), the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2009). She is represented by Annet Gelink gallery Amsterdam.

Her jewelry is inspired by the Surinam culture, its traditions and the connection with the European culture or intercultural themes.

Jewelry where shapes are inspired by traditions, new customs and stories are embedded. Reflection of globalization, a fusion of divers’ influences and cultures on a homogeneous and symbolic way. Clearly of a maker who grew up between two cultures. Going back to the roots of jewelry, bearer of magical powers and symbols. Where certain materials and shapes have an important role. Ethnic influences dictate and inspire the used form language without them being folkloristic and traditional.

At the start of his career, he gained recognition with his classically orientated portraits and had his work exhibited at the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam and the Frans Hals Museum Haarlem. With his more recent contemporary works, he has travelled the world exhibiting at international art fairs with KYAS ART SALON were he often addresses contemporary forms of technology and its effect on social structures with our society. The Fake Surface and WAKE ME UP WHEN I’M FAMOUS are some well-known examples.

Without formal training in painting, he has developed a personal technique that seeks out a classical feel but fully utilizes the possibilities and limits of contemporary oil paints and materials arriving at his own style. He is transparent about his painting technique and process which he, being a child of the digital age, often live streams for educational purposes and connection with a global audience.

A teacher suggested the Rietveld Academy where I applied for the preparatory course and was finally enrolled into the bachelor course. Now I found my place in Amsterdam at The Rietveld Academy and I am looking forward to making Amsterdam my home and to getting to know it better.

I recently got a job at the STRAAT museum at NDSM in the north of Amsterdam. I like to immerse myself into the art world and enjoy learning as much as possible. I do this by visiting musea, reading, meeting people and through online media. My main interest is painting but I keep a broad interest. I am very fascinated by art and I have a strong passion to be a part of this world and to get my name and ideas out into the world.

He has served on numerous juries and committees, including the jury for the Cor Unum Ceramics design competition, the Municipal Art Acquisitions Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, and as committee member for the Creative Industries Fund. His work is in the collection of Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam, Zeeuws Museum Middelburg, Van Abbemuseum Eindhoven, Designmuseum ’s-Hertogenbosch and The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.

The work of Casper Braat presents the common from a perspective of extravagance and is driven by a profound fascination with the contemporary world. No matter where one is (in the developed world and elsewhere), consumption is deeply entrenched into daily life. Consumer society values convenience, underlined by a desire for luxury, with a fetish for the new. In this world, brands reign supreme and have a powerful influence over the shape of culture.

Casper’s sculptures and installations are driven by a fascination for this reality. He glorifies the everyday by lifting the ordinary onto a pedestal. His work is made to last forever, memorializing the excess of the present for the future.

His conceptual research manifests in simplistically sleek sculptures, installations, and films. The work appears perfectly polished from the surface, but this sublime representation of reality is just a reflection of the everyday. Below this surface, the problematic aspects of this indulgent culture are plain to see, and ask for the viewer to wait for the mirror to crack.

With the use of classical production methods, and materials such as marble and gold, he elevates the common to the iconic. As an Art Director, Casper brings craft to the set, resulting in highly technical films that rely upon handmade elements, presenting the analogue in a digital environment.

Casper’s work exists and is presented within the commercial world, but also autonomously. In this way he functions in either environment and believes that he brings a critical eye into the commercial world, and vice versa.

Through the commercial, we are shown what is essential in our society. Casper feels we should celebrate our commercialized world, at least while we still can.

Having worked in the fashion-photography field from an early age, he left school to wander around Florida and Mississippi and in 1985 moved to Los Angeles where he started out painting in acrylics.There he landed a job as window display designer, creating surrealistic scenes for an exclusive Beverly Hills-designer shop. His first painting exhibition in L.A. was visited by Mr. Warhol. After moving to London four years later, he switched to collage-Art, producing iconic images -under the name “Indüstria”- for style magazines ‘Blitz’, ‘the Face’, ’the Manipulator’ (a newspaper-size iconic style magazine in the mid eighties) and Mr. Warhol’s magazine ‘Interview’. These publications led him in 1990 to Paris, where he was invited by fashion designer & photographer Thierry Mugler to collaborate on couture collections, painting fabrics and designing accessories. Paris and especially the ‘Mugler-planet’ during the supermodel-era proved endlessly inspiring. Back in Amsterdam he first picked up the camera himself and by the mid-nineties Kok became known for creating a futuristic language of beauty-imagery, combining elements from 1940ties cinema, science fiction, and classic Vogue Beauty-adverts. Having been dazzled by the then emerging digital technology, Fritz soon replaced handretouching with photoshop, to increase control over his images. (and not having to travel with a heavy Airbrush-compressor proved beneficial as well). Image manipulation has ever since been an integrated aspect of Kok’s work. In 1998 he ended up working in New York, where his ‘danger-diva’s’ and ‘fashion-muzes’ seemed to walk the thin line between elaborate retro kitch and timeless beauty. His work has been featured in V-Mag. , Vogue, and US music magazines, as well as in many commercial campaigns for Renault, Sony, Roberto Cavalli, Philip Morris and others. His recognizable style flirted with Albumcover-art and allowed him to collaborate with legends like Lenny Kravitz, Missy Elliott, Eve, Boy George, Robert Palmer and George Michael. The area where fashion and art overlap is his favorite play-field. His work can be traced back inside the magazines and advertisements, yet it is the manner in which he approaches a project that sets him apart from other photographers: Starting of by sketching envisioned images into eery detail, he then casts models, looks for materials and accessories, designs and builds backgrounds and mixes a soundtrack to lay down the shoot’s atmosphere. Kok claims that the eventual image(s) should be iconic, but the shoot itself should be as memorable as a cinematic experience.

Next to his free work, he did big art projects on the three biggest cruise ship companies; Carnaval Cruises, Royal Caribbean and Holland Amerika Line. In 2017 he made a 25 m. long bronze monument to memorize the 50 years existence of NATO. Working abroad, Vlugt always has been focusing on sharing information and teaching. In the early eighties, Vlugt worked with the Avant guard gallery The Living Room in Amsterdam; in 1986, he stepped over to Gallerie Nikki Diana Marquardt in Paris. Since 2017 Vlugt works with Gallery Saro Leon, Las Palmas, Canary Islands.

In 1980 she founded Film Art Amsterdam for which she directed and produced numerous films on art, music, human interest and spirituality, broadcasted a.o. in Germany (WDR), the US (PBS), Japan and Holland (NPO). Her expanded film works, installations and new media projects were exhibited worldwide in cultural institutions and festivals and are in the collections of a.o. Musee Beaubourg, Paris; Donnell Library, New York; Sammlung Neue Galerie, Berlin; Museum Bonn; National Art collection Holland, and EYE filmmuseum in Amsterdam. Her work is distributed a.o. by Canyon Cinema, in San Francisco, California and by IMAI- the Inter Media Art Institute in Dusseldorf, Germany.

Since 1977 Babeth has taught for twenty five years at numerous Film and Art academies, (San Francisco Art Institute, Berlin, London, Munster, Amsterdam, the Hague and Arnhem) and curated many events. From 1998- 2000 Babeth served on the advisory committee for the development of CyberCinema, with the European Film Centre Babelsberg in Germany & the European Union. From 1995 – 2001 she worked as producer and personal assistant to Johan van der Keuken. From the 1990’s onwards she serves as a professor of FIU, Free International University, established by Joseph Beuys. From 2000 – 2013 Babeth M. VanLoo co-founded and served as Programming Director of BOS, the Buddhist Broadcasting Foundation, the first Buddhist TV station in the western world, established on PBS in the Netherlands. In 2002 she joined the advisory board of IBFF, in San Francisco. In 2005 she founded the annual Buddhist Film Festival Europe in Amsterdam @EYE film museum and serves as it’s director in several cities. In 2013 she received the ‘Outstanding Woman in Buddhism Award 2013’ in Bangkok, Thailand by the United Nations Women committee: ’Babeth M. VanLoo has brought about change in the world with her international media contributions to Peace and Diversity’. In 2016 Babeth was installed as Chair of Arti et Amicitiae, the oldest art foundation in the Netherlands. Her book ‘ART = LIFE = ART- From Beuys to Buddhism’ was published in dec 2016 by SAMSARA books

Sjaak Kooij is an artist living and working in the Netherlands. In his paintings he uses elements of actuality such as social, cultural or political issues that define our times. He takes images from media and everyday events – alternated with footage from his personal archive – out of their original context, which creates an exciting interaction between image and content. As a result, the spectator will be confronted with these contemporary topics in an entirely different way.

Themes such as anonymity, estrangement, individualism and transience play an important role in the artwork of Sjaak. With these themes, occasionally used in an absurd staging, he confronts the viewer with ideas and posed questions. The work represents a search for boundaries, in which technique and image merge into one whole. Imagining these extremes manifests itself in dynamics and strong contrasts. The work derives partly from the expressionistic method or instead staged as substantive contrast. The different contrasts are not only reflected in content but can be found in technique and design too. Due to a layered method of working, the painting will create a dialogue with itself during the process. The act of painting itself, working with different materials with paint as a foundation, is an important part of establishing the artwork. The process of adding, removing and repainting, but above all exploring the medium painting, is essential for him as an artist.

Assmann studied at the AKI Academy of Art & Design in Enschede and the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam. He was artist in residence at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam and the European Ceramic WorkCentre (EKWC), Oisterwijk. His work is exhibited both nationally and internationally and is represented in diverse public and private collections, including the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam and Kunstmuseum Den Haag. Since 1999, Assmann has also fulfilled various positions in the field of art education, including coordinator of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie Ceramics Department and as mentor for the Master Contextual Design at the Design Academy Eindhoven and currently as tutor Handiwork and Materiality for the department of Fine Arts at ArtEZ University of the Arts, Arnhem.