Daan van Golden at Camden Arts Centre, 05 Dec 08 - 08 Feb 09

Exhibition Description:

Daan van Golden is renowned and celebrated in The Netherlands dating back to the 1960s and will be presenting his first solo exhibition in the UK at Camden Arts Centre. Creating meticulously executed paintings and photographs, van Golden seeks out beauty in the insignificant, using motifs from everyday life and themes from the history of art.

This exhibition is curated by Anne Pontégnie and organised by Camden Arts Centre. It will consist of over thirty paintings from the 1960's to the present and a number of photographs which include a selection from the series Youth is an art, images van Golden took of his daughter as she was growing up from 1978 - 1996.

This is van Golden's first major international exhibition tour, which will be showing at two other European institutions, accompanied by a full colour catalogue.

Description:

THE ARTIST: Born in 1936, Daan van Golden lives and works in Schiedam in The Netherlands. Although van Golden has exhibited widely close to home, in The Netherlands, Belgium and France, he has never had a major solo show in the UK or USA until his recent gallery show at Greene Naftali, New York (2008).

Having developed a painting style based on appropriation, using motifs such as decorative wallpaper and fabric, and later from the history of art, van Golden paints these images and forms with meticulous precision, achieving an eccentrically flawless surface. His translations cover a broad variety of art strategies - ranging from pop and photorealism to structural and conceptual art, minimalism to abstraction.

In his earlier years van Golden travelled extensively earning his living by diverse means - as a fashion photographer, a film extra in gangster movies and an English teacher. He lived in Japan in the early 60s and it was here that he became very interested in the art of meditation and Zen philosophy, an experience which significantly altered his painting style.

Van Golden came to international attention when he represented Holland in the XVLIII Venice Biennale (1999) and has had an on-going dialogue with Belgium free lance curator Anne Pontégnie since his participation in the 7th Lyon Biennale which she curated in 2003. Solo exhibitions include Golden Years, Museum Boijmans van Beuningenm Rotterdam (2006); Mitukoshi, Gemeente Museum, Den Haag, The Netherlands (2001); Tokyo 1964, Galerie Brutto Gusto, Rotterdam (2000); Youth is an Art, Konsthalle Goteborg, Sweden (1999), Institut Neerlandais, Paris, France (1998), Museum Boijmans Ven Beuningen, Rotterdam (1997). He is represented by Galerie Micheline Szwajcer, Antwerp and Greene Naftali Gallery, New York.

CAMDEN ARTS CENTRE: The centre is a venue for contemporary visual art and education, where ideas are made visible and people of all ages and abilities can engage in the creative process of making art. Their pioneering and varied programme of artist-led courses and other education activities has gained an international reputation as a model of good practice. They are known as a forward-thinking organisation where artists and others can see, make and talk about art. The centre is funded by Arts Council England, Camden Council and the Clore Duffield Foundation. They are also supported by the Mondriaan Foundation.

IMAGE: Daan van Golden, Heerenlux, 2003
oil on canvas
120 x 100 cm
© the artist
courtesy Galerie Micheline Szwajcer, Antwerp and Green Naftali Gallery, New York

Full Contact Details:

Galleries 1 & 2, admission free
Opening times:
Tuesday - Sunday: 10am-6pm;
Wednesdays late 10am–9pm
Closed Mondays and Bank Holidays
Camden Arts Centre, Arkwright Road, London NW3 6DG
Finchley Road/Hampstead Tube
T: +44 (0)20 7472 5500
F: +44 (0)20 7472 5501