‘Do you have the patience to wait until the mudd settles and the water is clear? Can you remain unmoving till the right action arises by itself?’ Lao Zi- Tao te ching

Art has the power to capture tiny, everyday moments for eternity. Fleeting moments are frozen in time, so that we can hold on to them before they slip out of our grasp: rain drops on a surface, sunlight emerging from behind the clouds, and petals swirling down from a bunch of wilting tulips. Sometimes, those moments are less tangible: memories of a past landscape, physical sensations after a loss, or the ghost images that unexpectedly appear in your eye from time to time. Every single one seemingly a fleeting moment, and every single one an inspiration for the artists in this exhibition.

What to paint and what not

That said, this exhibition is also about the act of painting in itself. How do you paint a fingerprint on a steamed-up mirror, the smooth metal surface of a lift door, and how do you capture the essence of the sun shining through the trees? How do you marry the feeling that wells up in you when you see something with the objective reality of what you perceive? What do you paint, and what do you choose to omit?

The world around us

The artists in this exhibition use these small, everyday phenomena in their work. They show you the sheer authenticity of the world around you. They will take you on a journey through memories, or they will play with perception and optical illusions to make you think about the way you see things. In their ode to everyday life, they not only shine a light on all the things there are to see around you; they also encourage you to step into their world, and to take something from it to bring back to yours.

Featured artists

Caja Boogers, Lieven Hendriks, Marie Reintjes, Eva Spierenburg, Evi Vingerling, and Agnes Waruguru.