Ad Lib / Upcoming exhibition

White Series IV / 2012

White Series 72 - Michiel Keuper, 2012, acrylic on magazine

White Series 71 - Michiel Keuper, 2012, acrylic on magazine

White Series 70 - Michiel Keuper, 2012, acrylic on magazine

White Series 62 - Michiel Keuper, 2012, acrylic on magazine

White Series 75 - Michiel Keuper, 2012, acrylic on magazine

All paintings © Michiel Keuper 2012

White Series III / 2012

White Series 61 - Michiel Keuper, 2012, acrylic on magazine 

White Series 38 - Michiel Keuper, 2012, acrylic on magazine 

White Series 42 - Michiel Keuper, 2012, acrylic on magazine 

White Series 41 - Michiel Keuper, 2012, acrylic on magazine 

 All paintings © Michiel Keuper 2012

White Series II / 2012

White Series 55 - Michiel Keuper, 2012, acrylic on magazine 

White Series 56 - Michiel Keuper, 2012, acrylic on magazine

White Series 54 - Michiel Keuper, 2012, acrylic on magazine

White Series 50 - Michiel Keuper, 2012, acrylic on magazine

White Series 51 - Michiel Keuper, 2012, acrylic on magazine

White Series 57 - Michiel Keuper, 2012, acrylic on magazine

White Series 53 - Michiel Keuper, 2012, acrylic on magazine

All paintings © Michiel Keuper 2012

You're The One That I Want / Slow version

Summer song. Me and Hana Lee Erdman doing an acoustic version of the Grease classic. With Tom O'Doherty on guitar.

White Series I / 2011

White Series 21, 2011, acrylic on magazine. © Michiel Keuper

White Series 26, 2011, acrylic on magazine. © Michiel Keuper

White Series 24, 2011, acrylic on magazine. © Michiel Keuper

White Series 15, 2011, acrylic on magazine. © Michiel Keuper

Lovin's for Fools/ Ponderosa, june 2012

A fragment of our concert at Ponderosa last june. 'Lovin's for Fools' written by Sarah Siskind.Vocals: Hana Lee Erdman, Michiel Keuper. Guitar: Tom O'Doherty. Base: Laurent Lavallé. Video: Kyla Rose Maher via facebook. Thanks Kyla! 

Self reflection / René Daniels' Untitled from 1981

self reflected in René Daniels' Untitled from 1981 at van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven

Magic Tape / Zilvinas Kempinas

Witch Camp Part 1 / Meg Stuart & Lexa Roséan / Ritual Performance

The Payen Tarot of Marseille of 1713, left, and 1930, right

Nipple gate...? Well, fact is that Facebook busted me for putting up these photos. This is how Facebook does it; they first give you a warning and take off just a couple of the photos that they consider violating their regulations. To then bust you with a final warning, half a day later, for the ones that they left on. Giving you a 24hour block and threat to delete your account if you ever do it again. So well, back to blogger I guess...

Now the story. During the Witch Camp workshop of Meg Stuart and Lexa Roséan at Tanzland Festival Ponderosa in Stolzenhagen in july, participants were asked to present a Ritual/Performance. The group of Asaf Aharonson, Maya Weinberg, Shiran Eliaserov, Aaron Water and Hallie Dalsimer asked me to collaborate with Anne Sophie Malmberg and Samina Bazai, to create an image in costume and setting, based on 'The Devil' from the Payen Tarot of Marseille. In Joy Mariama Smith we found the perfect devil and she played her role with devilish joy. The performers went to their limits and made a great ritual act. It was an instant and improvised collaboration, and a lot of fun.

Co-creators Samina Bazai, left, and Anne Sophie Malmberg, right

Try out with Anne Sophie Malmberg

 All photos by Michiel Keuper, july 2012

Berlin Gallery Weekend / Close to Home, group exhibition

Close to Home, april 2012 - overview

During Berlin Gallery Weekend from 27 till 29 april, I took part in the group exhibition 'Close to Home' hosted by Mr. & Mrs. Cameron at MadeMyDay Studio, Torstrasse 66 in Berlin-Mitte.

Karin and Richard Cameron invited over 30 of their artist friends in their 'temporary living room'. The 3-day exhibition consisted of paintings, drawings, photography, interior and fashion design. On top there were live performances and lectures. For the complete list of contributors click here.

I took the chance to show two new paintings. See photos up and below.

'Erased (Limbs)', 2012, oil on canvas, 58x75cm

'Boy Looking Down', 2011-2012, oil on canvas, 40x50cm

Studio view - on the left 'Erased (Limbs)' 58x75cm,
right 'Boy Looking Down' 40x50cm, both oil on canvas 

All photos © Michiel Keuper 2012

SCRAPBOOK / after 'Album' by Hannah Höch

Video of a scrapbook I did in 2009/2010. Inspired by 'Album', a collage book by DaDa artist Hannah Höch from the 1930s, posthumously published by Hatje Cantz Verlag in 2004.

For iPhone version click here.

Port Folio / Recent Paintings II

'Perspective/ After Peter Hujar  (Daniel)', oil on canvas, 26 x 34cm - Michiel Keuper, 2012

'Perspective/ After Peter Hujar  (David)', oil on canvas, 26 x 34cm - Michiel Keuper, 2012

'Perspective/ After Peter Hujar  (Bruce)', oil on canvas, 26 x 34cm - Michiel Keuper, 2012

'Perspective/ After Peter Hujar  (Gary)', oil on canvas, 26 x 34cm - Michiel Keuper, 2012

All photos © Michiel Keuper 2012

Port Folio / Recent paintings

'Frost', 2011, oil on canvas, 30 x 40 cm

'Twist', 2011, oil on canvas, 40 x 30 cm

'Red Door', 2011, oil on canvas, 23 x 30 cm

All paintings © Michiel Keuper, 2012

Spintime

dancing sufi dervish, Sudan - via wikipedia

Life imitating Art or the Aesthetics of Disaster / Peter Doig and the Japanese catastrophy

Harbour at Ishinomaki - photo Reuters

Peter Doig - Ski Jacket (detail), 1994, oil on canvas, 295x351cm

A year ago a triple catastrophe hit the North-East coast of Japan. After the earthquake, after the tsunami, there was, and still is, the ongoing nuclear disaster in Fukushima.
In the days and weeks directly following, a stream of images came to us by television, printed media and internet. As disturbing and shocking these images were, they were fascinating at the same time. In a way one couldn't stop looking at those horrific pictures and videos. Probably because the sheer force of nature would leave us paralyzed and in awe... Somehow it was just unimaginable that this would happen in real life; one catastrophe would follow another, and another. Something you would only know from apocalyptic films, now happened in real time on our computer and TV screens. I remember the images of the black tsunami swapping over a boardwalk, swallowing cars, busses, basically everything that was on its path.
At the time I happened to be researching paintings of Peter Doig (b. 1959), a critically acclaimed (and commercially successful) contemporary artist. I love his work for the colours, the layers, the structures, their space and the often eery atmosphere. Although Doig's work is often inspired by the landscapes of his youth, Canada, and by his current place of living, Trinidad; and although he has been painting such sceneries since the early 1990's, it struck me that many of the images from the Fukushima disaster looked like Doig paintings having come alive.
At first I thought this might be chance. But when I started looking at more photos and putting them alongside Doig's paintings, I was intrigued by the many parallels. That is when I prepared this blog post.
Still, it felt perverse to look at disaster pictures in an aesthetical way, where the catastrophy was still unfolding. At that point, a year ago, I decided not to publish it.
Now, a year later, looking back at those same images and the media picking up on it once again, it seems relevant to post it at last. This time it is shocking to realize how much we have gotten used to the imagery. It must be the inflation effect of the ongoing stream of media images that we encounter every day. A friend compared it to pornography; the pornography of disaster. One is hooked, thrilled, at times disgustedly intrigued, shamefully exited, but it also leaves you numb after a while.
This hardly ever happens to me when looking at art.

[For slide show click photos to enlarge]

Ferry swept on roof top by tsunami - photo AP

Peter Doig - Okahumkee (Some other peoples blues), 1990, 203x240cm, oil on canvas, Kunsthalle zu Kiel

Ruins in the city of Kesennuma - photo Reuters

Peter Doig - Briey (Concrete Cabin), 1994-6, oil on canvas, 277x188cm

 Sports ground in the Iwate prefecture - photo Reuters

Peter Doig - The Heart of Old San Juan, 1999, oil on canvas, 250x195.5cm

Peter Doig - Red Boat (Imaginary Boys), 2004, oil on canvas, 200x186cm

Rescue workers discovered a man who had been swept out into the Pacific Ocean - photo AP / Defense Ministry

Peter Doig - Lunker, 1995, oil on canvas, 200x266cm 

Peter Doig - The House that Jack Built, 1992, oil on canvas, 200x250cm

In the destroyed city of Natori a survivor stands on the ruins of his home - photo DPA

Peter Doig - Red House, 1995-96, oil on canvas, 200x275

photo AP / Kyodo News via Spiegel.de

Houses swept by a tsunami smoulder near Sendai Airport in Japan - photo Reuters

Peter Doig - Swamped, 1990, oil on canvas, 197x241cm

Sendai Airport - photo Reuters / Kyodo

Peter Doig - White Canoe, 1990-1, oil on canvas, 200.5 x 243cm 

Houses in Sendai in the Miyagi prefecture - photo AP / Kyodo

Peter Doig - Jetty,1994, oil on canvas, 200x248cm

photo Reuters via Spiegel.de

Peter Doig - Pink Snow, 1991 -oil on canvas, 243.5x198cm

Peter Doig - White Creep, oil on canvas, 290 x 199cm

photo AFP

Peter Doig - Saint Anton (Flat Light), 1995-96, oil on canvas, 275x275cm

Photo AP

 Peter Doig - The Architects Home in the Ravine, oil on canvas, 200 x 275cm

The damaged roof of reactor number No. 1 at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant - Reuters

Peter-Doig - Bird House (small) 1995, oil on canvas - 40.6x30.5cm

Wohngebiet in Sendai - Reuters

Peter Doig - Camp Forestia, 1996, oil on canvas, 170x170cm

photo Reuters

Peter Doig - Pine House (Rooms for Rent), 1994, oil on canvas

Peter Doig - Lapeyrouse Wall, 2004, oil on canvas, 200x250.5cm

A man looks over the area submerged in water from the tsunami in Soma - AP Kyodo News

Peter Doig - Almost Grown, 2000, oil on canvas, 200x295cm

An almost surreal sight in Shiogama, Miyagi prefecture - DPA

Peter Doig - Baked, 1990, oil on canvas, 182x235cm

All paintings © Peter Doig

All photos via internet, march 2011