CHRONIC. Handmade Nightmares in Red, Yellow and Blue

The exhibition Chronic brings together the work of three artists with very different backgrounds: Folkert de Jong (1971 Egmond aan Zee, Netherlands), Fendry Ekel (1971 Jakarta, Indonesia), and Dylan Graham (1972 Otautahi, New Zealand).

They have known each other since the beginning of their careers and have engaged in an intensive artistic dialogue ever since. Their use of materials and techniques is highly diverse: while Dylan Graham explores new possibilities within drawing and installation, Folkert de Jong’s work is embedded in the tradition of sculpture, and Fendry Ekel’s work revolves around the meaning of loaded images within painting and its possibilities.

The subtitle of the exhibition, Handmade Nightmares in Red, Yellow and Blue, refers to the fundamental ideas of the artists associated with the Dutch art movement De Stijl, which, in the 1910s, refined painting to the three primary colors: red, yellow, and blue. Simultaneously, it is also a reference to Barnett Newman’s series of immense canvases, Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue, one of which was slashed open by an art vandal in the Stedelijk Museum of Amsterdam in 1986 with a knife.

The work of the three artists is embedded in contemporary times, utilizing historical source material found on the internet, in books, and the press. Themes such as war, destruction, abuse of power, and fear recur frequently. Chronic is like a whirlwind that fills the museum space with bizarre associations, a historically loaded iconography, and a baroque visual language.

The exhibition is a concept by curator Astrid Honold. The concept was developed in February 2007 for an exhibition at the Monique Meloche Gallery in Chicago.