Program April 2022

Vivid Delights

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Exhibition


 

Vivid Delights
Batik Art by Michelle Mesker

 

Meet the artist every Thursday and Saturday morning.

 

Vivid Delights consists of a large collection of framed batiks in various sizes. Some are enriched with very subtle embroidery. Each of these unique works of art is the result of the sum of the many experiments and expertise gained over the past decades with the century-old batik craft. Michelle mastered this technique and explored the limits of what was feasible, thereby becoming increasingly detached from the traditional colors and patterns used in batik. Vivid Delights therefore vividly shows Michelle Mesker's Caribbean colorful touch and her craftmanship.

Michelle Mesker (1957) studied architectural design at the Artibus Art Academy in Utrecht, the Netherlands. After her studies she returns to Curaçao. In the nineties she takes a batik course but is not satisfied with the results. Yet totally intrigued, she decides to delve into it and gradually becomes more and more captivated by this form of art.
Michelle refines her technique and plays with colors in her own way. Her designs also move away from the original batik patterns. Curaçao, and her passion for architecture appear in her work in the form of country houses, nature scenes, birds and of course the sea. Spain and Portugal where she lived for a couple of years also inspire. Especially the female saints and patrons.

More challenges
Michelle is always working on refining her technical skills, and challenges herself to create increasingly complex art pieces. More details, more depth, even more color, and larger work.

To make batik the fabric is partially coated with wax. Michelle Mesker does not use regular wax but beeswax. Each color layer is applied separately in this process. Sometimes this is repeated for up to 15 times. The result of this time consuming labor are bright, cheerful, contemporary tableaux made using the ancient technique that came to Europe from Indonesia around 1600.

 

Hòfi Cinema April

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Event

 

 

Hòfi Cinema

Hòfi Cinema

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday April 28 | 7.30 PM
Admission ANG. 8,50

Hòfi Cinema

Can a father forgive his son’s murderer?

When Boy was fifteen years old, his father, businessman Dundun Ecury from Aruba, sent him to boarding school in The Netherlands. When the war breaks out, he joins the resistance. Just before the liberation, he is executed by the Germans. Ten years later Dundun Ecury arrives in the post-war Netherlands to search for the body of his son. He has only one thing to go on; Boy died with a smile on his face. Dundun’s search leads to a confrontation with Ewoud, the suspected murderer of his son. He realizes, to his annoyance, that he starts to project the care and love for Boy onto Ewoud. Then Ewoud makes a painful revelation.

 

Easter Market

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Event

 

 

Easter Market

Easter Market

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday April 9th from 9 am to 2 pm.
Admission ANG 1,00

Easter Market

Landhuis Bloemhof organizes its very first Easter Market.
With over 50 crafters joining us and a fun program for kids of all ages. Egg hunting galore for young and old.
And of course you can visit our current exhibition Symbiosis by Brigitte Wawoe and Angel Luis de la Rosa González. Artist Hortence Brouwn will be present and by all means stroll through The Cathedral of Thorns.
The Bloemhof shop and the Sumpiña shop will also be open.
So bring your family to Landhuis Bloemhof Saturday April 9th. Entrance is one guilder a person. And a small fee will be charged for the Egg Hunt. Please bring small change.
You can park at Number Ten, our Bloemhof parking and at the parking of the Orco Bank NV who supports our cultural activities.

 

Symbiosis

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Exhibition

Symbiosis
Sculptures and drawings

Brigitte Wawoe and Angel Luis de la Rosa González

 

Opening Saturday March 12

 

Symbiosis – Sculptures and drawings
Brigitte Wawoe and Angel Luis de la Rosa González are both sculptors. Brigitte is known to work with stone from the Tafelberg and Angel generally works with mahogany and wood from the wayaká tree. They met each other back in 2015 during an exhibition at Gallery Alma Blou. Brigitte initially approached Angel to help around her studio with the finishing of her sculptures and to help move heavy stones. Soon their work relationship evolved into an artistic collaboration. They started selecting stones together and exchanged ideas on what they see when looking at the shapes. After three years of closely working together, they felt it was time to show the result of their collaboration in SYMBIOSIS.
Check the digital catalogue here!

According to the dictionary Symbiosis stands for the interaction between two different organisms living in close physical association, typically to the advantage of both. For Brigitte and Angel this association also means growth, identification, and connection.

For Angel the experience of working alongside Brigitte made him step out of his comfort zone. As a figurative artist he generally imposes his ideas on primary materials. This time around however he immersed himself into the abstract, playful and fantasy world of Brigitte. During this creative process Angel integrated certain elements into the way he works. He feels that this experience allows him space to reflect on the object he is working on and to freely make adjustments. It is a more organic way of working, of allowing the primary material to reveal itself instead of imposing his ideas on it.

Taking into consideration their individual way of working, their gender, age gap and culture, it was quite an experience for both artists to see how art unites. The frequency with which they exchanged ideas revealed their common passion and pushed their commitment to create art together to a higher level.

Brigitte Wawoe
Brigitte was born in Heidelberg, Germany in 1939 and was trained at the art section of the Morley College in London and at the Vrije Academie in Den Haag. She lived in Curaçao from 1967 and moved to London in 1978. She now lives in The Netherlands but frequently returns to Curaçao to work. She has her sculpture studio at the industrial complex in Nieuwpoort. This hidden gem is tucked away on the east side of the Tafelberg at Fuik Bay. Here the Englishman John Godden started the phosphate mining company in 1875.
Brigitte has exhibited in various cities in the Netherlands and in Europe and has had numerous solo exhibitions and group exhibitions at Landhuis Bloemhof.

Angel Luis de la Rosa González
Angel was born in Santiago de Cuba in 1971. He comes from a family where both men and women were manually skilled. In 1983 Angel joined the Academia de Artes Plásticas José Joaquín Tejada and graduated as a sculpture and drawing teacher. He went on to work at Casa de Cultura in a town called Jiguani Granma. There his interaction with art and handcraft led him to discover how versatile the material of wood can be. In 1994 he returned to Santiago de Cuba and was an independent artist. Short thereafter he became president of Asociasion Cubana De Artesanos Artistas-ACAA. In 2009 he came to Curaçao, with a group of 5 artisans to work on the project of L'ALDEA, nowadays known as AMAZONIA, and stayed ever since.
In Curaçao he had 3 solo exhibitions at Gallery Alma Blou, participated in various group exhibitions and worked on various collaborations with other local artists.