Berend Strik Explained

Berend Strik (born 26 April 1960) is a Dutch visual artist working and living in Amsterdam.

Biography

Berend Strik grew up in Nijmegen, Netherlands. From 1986 until 1988 he studied at the Rijksakademie (Royal Academy of Visual Arts) in Amsterdam. From 1998 until 2000 he followed the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York. In 2001 he was "artist in residence" at Het Vijfde Seizoen (The Fifth Season) in Den Dolder, Netherlands.

Strik has been awarded several national and international prizes, including the 1987 Prix de Rome (second prize, sculpture), the 1990 Charlotte Köhler Award and the 1992 Dorothea von Stetten Art Award.

The work of Berend Strik has been exhibited extensively, both in solo and group exhibitions. In 1994 Strik had a solo exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam called Sadness, Sluices, Mermaids, Delay. In 2010/2011 The Valkhof Museum (Nijmegen) presented a retrospective exhibition, called May I Show You My Pictures?, accompanied by a publication of the same title.Strik’s work has also been exhibited internationally in several exhibitions. In 2007/2008 it formed part of the group exhibition PRICKED! EXTREME EMBROIDERY at the Museum of Arts and Design (New York).[1] This exhibition presented the work of 48 artists from 17 countries, who applied the technique of embroidery in their work in various different ways. The Mudam (Luxembourg) exhibited Strik’s work in 2010 as part of the group exhibition Just love me, together with work by Donald Judd, Mike Kelley, Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter en Luc Tuymans, amongst others.[2]

In 2012, Boris Gerrets filmed a studio portrait of Berend Strik, as part of the Hollandse Meesters in de 21e eeuw project (Dutch Masters of the 21st century), in which renowned filmmakers followed the most important Dutch artists of today in their studios.Several museums have acquired Strik’s works for their collections, including the Amsterdam Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Valkhof Museum, Fries Museum, Schunck Cultural Centre, Museum Het Domein and Textiel Museum.The work of Berend Strik can also be found in several corporate collections, such as: Stichting Kunst & Historisch Bezit ABN AMRO, Achmea Kunstcollectie, AKZO Nobel Art Foundation, AMC Collectie, Bouwfonds Kunstcollectie, Kunstcollectie De Nederlandsche Bank and Rabo Kunstcollectie.

Work

Berend Strik has worked in several disciplines, ranging from two-dimensional works to sculpture and architecture. What he is best known for, however, is his embroidered works. Initially, Strik used found materials such as family album pictures and magazine pictures as his starting point. His more recent work uses pictures he took during his travels. Strik embroiders over the original image and adds pieces of cloth.

In 1994 Berend Strik, together with visual artist Hans van Houwelingen, designed new stained-glass windows for the Paradiso music venue in Amsterdam. These windows, called The modern morals, express contemporary interpretations of concepts like ‘Love’, ‘Marriage’, ‘The mother’, ‘Creation’, and ‘Death’. For the representation of contemporary marriage the artists chose Same-sex marriage; ‘The mother’ is portrayed as a highly pregnant career woman; the ‘Creation’ window displays cloned sheep Dolly.

In 2000, for the foyer of the TivoliVredenburg music venue in Utrecht, Berend Strik designed Electric Church, a tribute to Jimi Hendrix. This work consists of a recess behind a fence, the niche displaying pictures above a yellow bench of Jimi Hendrix and two of his band members.

In 2009 Berend Strik traveled to the West Bank and East Jerusalem, where he visited Jewish and Palestinian homes. The photographs he made there formed the starting point of several works both displaying insignificant scenes and revealing the tension felt throughout this region.

In 2010, commissioned by Vesteda, Strik produced 52 works in which he highlighted various aspects of the work of architect Álvaro Siza. These works are on display at the New Orleans residential tower designed by Siza, at the Wilhelminapier in Rotterdam.

Since 2012 Strik has been working on a series about the artist studio: Decipher the Artist’s Mind. For this series he visited and photographed studios of several artists, after which he edited the pictures. It is not so much the artists themselves that play a central role in this series, but rather the studios in which they work.

Solo exhibitions
Group exhibitions

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Pricked Cheers Exhibitions Dates Extended. madmuseum.org. 18 October 2014.
  2. Web site: MUDAM: Just Love me. mudam.lu. 18 October 2014.

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