Texts

Ein wunderbares Ganzes (in German and Dutch)

Exhibition project at Kunstverein Projektraum Bahnhof25, Kleve, Germany Text by: Heiner Frost Mehrwert Am kommenden Samstag, 5. November, wird um 17 Uhr eine Ausstellung mit Werken von Nelleke Beltjens und Marga Knaven eröffnet und es sei gleich gesagt: Das Hingehen lohnt sich – das Hinsehen erst...
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PRESENTLY project text 2022

PRESENTLY. Sarah Walker, Nelleke Beltjens, Thomas Kemper   Even a superficial glance at the works of Sarah Walker, Nelleke Beltjens, and Thomas Kemper reveals clear differences between them in terms of technique and formal language. Over many years, the three artists have each developed their o...
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Nelleke Beltjens by Rollin Beamish

Can the sleeper awaken? In characteristic fashion, Dutch artist Nelleke Beltjens, in the title of her new exhibition, “I dreamt I was sleeping”, casts a metaphorical, even narrative veil over work that might at first appear completely non-objective. The phrase suggests a shifting viewpoint – ...
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Canary in a Coal Mine

It often begins with a presence that is simultaneously an absence. Using the edge of a piece of scratch paper as a guide, a fragmented line is produced by making a series of short marks in ink from the scratch paper onto the work surface. This process is repeated, forming more lines that are network...
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What does it mean to orient oneself in drawing?

Remarks on the drawings of Nelleke Beltjens by Peter Lodermeyer. I. In the proper meaning of the word, to orient oneself means to use a given direction (when we divide the horizon into four of them) in order to find the others—literally to find the sunrise. Now if I see the sun in the sky and I ...
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Flows and Interruptions

Alexandra Roozen and Nelleke Beltjens Pencil on paper – this drawing technique, overall one of the simplest, clearest, and oldest, lies at the core of the work of Andrea Roozen. Drawing with pencil is a constant source of wonderment for this artist, and is consequently time and again the object of...
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