Spazio Nobile is pleased to present “Kiki van Eijk: The New Harvest”, an exhibition of new sculptures and textiles by the Eindhoven based artist and designer. “The New Harvest” will open on May 25, 2021 in the monument listed, Art Nouveau exhibition space of Lempertz Auction House, as part of Collectible program in the city.
Since establishing her studio in 2000, following her graduation from the Dutch Design Academy, van Eijk has produced a unique body of work that spans from furniture design to textiles to experimental art installations and works on paper. Her rich imagination and creative freedom bring a sense of wonder and play, while her connection to nature and the landscape grounds her work in the beauty of the everyday. An exquisite carpet inspired by the weeds growing through the paving stones in her gardens “Savage Flowers”, 2012 or a furniture collection “Textile Sketch”, 2011-2012 made with laser-cut metal but that looks like textiles, transforms how we experience an object, expanding our own imagination as we engage with it.
Drawing and sketching, which for van Eijk also includes collage, watercolour or, as she says, “any type of handmade thing,” are an essential part of her artistic process, and it is a way for her to remain free and spontaneous as she creates. This intuitive process is reflected in two recent projects, “Ceramic Wall Stories” and “Domestic Collages”, which will be on view in this solo show.
Both “Ceramic Wall Stories” (2020-2021), a collection of hand-built ceramic mirrors made while working as an artistin-residence at the Dutch ceramics company Cor Unum, and “Domestic Collages” (2020-2021), a series of hand-stitched wall hangings made while she was at home during the pandemic using her own textile archive, follow collage as her primary artistic process.
While in “Ceramic Wall Stories” it involves cut and paste slabs of glazed ceramic that build the object, in the wall hangings, we see her use of layering, texture, and pattern playing out in fabric. This corpus of playful and sophisticated unique artworks reveals van Eijk further blurring the boundaries between the freedom of a sketch and the final piece.
