Patrick Heide Contemporary Art is pleased to announce the second solo exhibition by Dutch artist Reinoud Oudshoorn presenting a cross section of recent sculptures.
Usually attached to a wall or arranged in a corner, Oudshoorn’s objects might seem almost two-dimensional at first glance. However, they open up to endless spaces once one engages with the works and assesses them from different angles. Moving around the objects and changing the vantage point, they start to uncover spaces, which remained hidden. Spaces that lie in between the shapes and materials visible; areas that cannot be captured or confined.
Initially self-contained and static, the sculptural compositions unfurl in the imagination of the viewer expanding beyond the wall they inhabit as well as into the gallery space and from there into infinite depth. Originally trained as a painter, Oudshoorn was unsatisfied with the two dimensional limitation of the medium and ventured into the third dimension. He manufactures every sculpture himself and designs them with the same vanishing point, always suggesting endlessness in the space that surrounds us. Ultimately Oudshoorn creates a bridge between the spatial illusion of the flat surface and the concrete reality of the three-dimensional sculpture.
The materials Oudshoorn uses emphasise this illusory language. Besides his well-known wall objects in iron and frosted glass consisting of shapes such as rectangles, circles and squares, usually seen in perspective, the exhibition also includes a spatial installation with iron rings and a wooden wall object. All materials accentuate the physical aspect of the space they occupy. Yet despite being solid, sometimes heavy objects, they seem rather fragile and almost floating.
Oudshoorn’s inspiration for his sculptures originates from impressions of the world the artist experiences. This can be imagery drawn from nature or architectural shapes, and phenomena like the mist characteristic for his homeland. Abstracted into surfaces and structures, they are transformed into new objects that reveal contemplative and even mysterious qualities. This link between nature and infinity refers to influential artistic movements such as the simplified compositions of the De Stijl with its clear forms or to the atmospheric light of Dutch landscape painting. The play with perception and dissolution of forms relates Oudshoorn’s sculptures to works like the condensation cubes by Hans Haake from the early 60s or Anthony Gormley’s cloud chamber Blind Light.
Once Oudshoorn’s works leave the artist’s studio they have only partly fulfilled their purpose, as they need the space they inhabit and the imagination of the viewer. Assembled in one exhibition, the sculptures on display transform the gallery space into a plurality of perspectives and a spectacular landscape of illusionary spaces.
Reinoud Oudshoorn lives and works in Amsterdam. He has held numerous solo and group exhibitions and his works entered important international collections. Recently two large-scale sculptures were acquired from the renowned Sammlung Schroth in Germany.