Marc Nagtzaam: Various, Elsewhere, Ongoing

5 December 2020 – 13 February 2021

Various, Elsewhere, Ongoing
Review by Peter Funken
KUNSTFORUM International 273

kajetan. Various. Elsewhere. Ongoing
Interview by Erka Shalari with Marc Nagtzaam and Tobias Posselt
Les Nouveaux Riches Magazine

Marc Nagtzaam | Various, Elsewhere, Ongoing | Exhibition view 2020 / 2021 | Courtesy Marc Nagtzaam & kajetan Berlin | Photo: Marcus Schneider

Marc Nagtzaam hat ein Werk produziert, das auf einem Hauptthema basiert: der Idee des Musters, der Wiederholung. Er zeichnet Linien, Gitter, Kreise, Wörter oder Sätze wie bei einer endlosen Suche nach Informationen. Die Wiederholung und die grafische Struktur seiner Arbeiten scheinen an minimale und konzeptuelle Ästhetik zu erinnern. Die meisten Zeichnungen von Marc Nagtzaam bestehen aus farblosen, dunkel gefüllten Graphitoberflächen. Abstrahierte Elemente aus Architektur, Grafikdesign, Details aus gefundenen Fotografien oder Teile aus früheren Zeichnungen sind Ausgangspunkte für jede Werkreihe.

So handelt es sich auch in Marc Nagtzaams Serie ‚Borrowed Space | An Index of Forms’ (Zeichnungen hinter Glas in der Ausstellung) um gezeichnete Kompositionen, die sich aus Formen und Elementen aus vorhandenen Buchumschlägen, Postern und Gemälden entlehnen. Punkte, Linien und Flächen bilden eine Art Struktur.

Zart, subtil und kraftvoll maximiert Marc Nagtzaam in den verdichteten Oberflächen zudem perspektivische Energien durch die seinen Arbeiten eigene leicht anmutende Schwerkraft dunkler Grautöne, einem materiellen Schwarz.

Wiederkehrende Formen und unterbrechende, aussetzende, pulsierende Rhythmen erschaffen in ihrer bildnerischen Selbstreferentialität und  materiellen Ablösung eine immersive Intensität in der Wahrnehmung der Kunst von Marc Nagtzaam.

Oder wie es der Künstler selbst betont: „Ich suche nach Darstellungen einer (scheinbar) konkreten Realität und suche nach Bildern, die nur als Zeichnung existieren können.“ Wir freuen uns sehr, in unserer Galerie kajetan Berlin die erste Einzelausstellung von Marc Nagtzaam in Berlin zu zeigen.

Marc Nagtzaam | Various, Elsewhere, Ongoing | Exhibition view 2020 / 2021 | Courtesy Marc Nagtzaam & kajetan Berlin | Photo: Marcus Schneider

Marc Nagtzaam has been producing a body of work that is based on one main subject: the idea of pattern, the repetition. He draws lines, grids, circles, words or sentences as in an endless search for collecting pieces of information. The repetition and the graphic structure of his works seem reminiscent of minimal and conceptual aesthetics. Most of Marc Nagtzaam´s drawings consist of colourless, darkly filled in graphite surfaces. Abstracted elements from architecture, graphic design, details from found photographs, or parts from previous drawings are starting points for every series of works.

Marc Nagtzaam’s series ‚Borrowed Space | An Index of Forms‘ (drawings behind glass in the exhibition) is also about drawn compositions that are borrowed from shapes and elements from existing book covers, posters and paintings. Points, lines and surfaces form a kind of structure.

Gentle, subtle and powerful, Marc Nagtzaam also maximizes perspective energies in the condensed surfaces through the light-looking gravity of dark gray tones, a material black, which is characteristic of his works.

Recurring forms and intermittent, pulsating rhythms create an immersive intensity in the perception of Marc Nagtzaam’s art in their pictorial self-referentiality and material detachment.

As Nagtzaam himself points out: “I’m looking for representations of a (seemingly) concrete reality as well as I search for images which can only exist as a drawing.” We are very delighted to present Marc Nagtzaam’s first solo exhibition in Berlin in our gallery kajetan Berlin.

Marc Nagtzaam | Various, Elsewhere, Ongoing | Exhibition view 2020 / 2021 | Courtesy Marc Nagtzaam & kajetan Berlin | Photo: Marcus Schneider

MARC NAGTZAAM

1968 geboren | born in Helmond, NL

1998 Mitbegründer von | Co-Founder of Roma Publications Amsterdam

Lebt und arbeitet | lives and works in Hoofdplaat, NL

Marc Nagtzaam | Various, Elsewhere, Ongoing | Exhibition view 2020 / 2021 | Courtesy Marc Nagtzaam & kajetan Berlin | Photo: Marcus Schneider

SOLO EXHIBITIONS (a selection)

2020 / Various, Elsewhere, Ongoing, kajetan Berlin, Berlin (D) / Regular Features and Borrowed Space (curated by M.N.), ProjecteSD, Barcelona (ES) / 2019 / Regular Features, art3, Valance (FR) / Regular Features, Archiv, Zürich (CH) / 2017 / Surplus, Riot, Gent (B) / 2015 / The Aesthetic of the Fragment (curated by M.N.), Panache, Antwerp (B) / Eight Pieces for Eight Corners, Objectif Exhibitions, Antwerp (B) / 2014 / Not Available, De Vleeshal, Middelburg (publ.) / Solo Booth Art Brussels (B), ProjecteSD (ES) / 2012 / Often, Not Always, Studio van der Mieden, Antwerp (B) / 2011 / The Erased Tapes, Barbara Seiler Galerie, Zürich (CH) / Modernist Persuasion, ProjecteSD, Barcelona (ES) / 2010/ Not Available, Peschkenhaus, Moers (D) / 2008 / Nothing Rhymes, ProjecteSD, Barcelona (ES)

Marc Nagtzaam | Various, Elsewhere, Ongoing | Exhibition view 2020 / 2021 | Courtesy Marc Nagtzaam & kajetan Berlin | Photo: Marcus Schneider

DUO EXHIBITIONS (a selection)

2019 / Regular Features (with Mark Manders), Enter Enter, Space for Books, Amsterdam / 2018 / Borrowed Space (with Hans Demeulenaere), Emergent, Veurne (B) / 2016 / A Drawing Placed Between Two Objects, (with Mark Manders), ProjecteSD, Barcelona (ES) / 2014 / Unstable Objects and Shells Crushed, (with Jochen Lempert) DIX291, Paris (FR) / 2011 / A Good Chair is a Good Chair and There is No Such Thing as a Bad Book (with Jochen Weber), Arti Capelli, ’s Hertogenbosch / One Show About One Drawing (with Hans Demeulenaere), Museum M, Leuven (B)

Marc Nagtzaam | Various, Elsewhere, Ongoing | Exhibition view 2020 / 2021 | Courtesy Marc Nagtzaam & kajetan Berlin | Photo: Marcus Schneider

GROUP EXHIBITIONS (a selection)
 
2020 / As Good a Place to Start as Any, lxhxb, Eindhoven / 2019 / The Gulf Between, De Warande, Turnhout (B) / 2018 / Form follows Fiction, kajetan Berlin, Berlin (D) / De Line Up, Centraal Museum, Utrecht / 2017 /Copy Construct (curated by K. Andreasen), CC Mechelen, Mechelen (B) / This is the Cover of the Book (curated by M. Küng), Centre Cultural, Madrid (ES) / 019-Design museum, Gent (B) / 2016 / Wall Piece, Art Basel, ProjecteSD, Basel (CH) / The Form of Form Architecture, Triennale, Musea da Electricidade – Fundacao EDP, Lisbon/ 2015 / The Bottom Line, S.M.A.K., Ghent (B) / L’Ordre caché, saison 1, FRAC Bourgogne, Dijon (FR) / 2014 / Roma Publications 1998-2014, Fondazione Giuliani, Rome (I) / Conversation Piece, MuZEE, Oostende (B) / Forcefield, A Drawing Show, Institut de Carton, Brussels (B) / 2012 / Reflections on Form, Barbara Seiler Galerie, Zürich (CH) / Autumn of Modernism (curated by Lorenzo Benedetti), Temporary Gallery, Cologne (D) / Minimal Myth (curated by Francesco Stocchi), Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam / 2011 / Het Zelfportret, Het Huis en de Seizoenen (curated by Koenraad Dedobbeleer), Mu.ZEE, Oostende (B) / About Drawing, Stedelijk Museum, Schiedam (cat.) / 2010 / Cimento Dell’Armonia e Dell’Invenzioni: or The Drawing Machines (curated by Simone Menegoi), Galerija Gregor Podnar, Berlin (D)/ The Unknown Group, Frac Bourgogne, Dijon (FR) / 2009 / Heaven, 2nd Athens Biennial, (GR) / 2008 / The Order of Things (curated by Dieter Roelstraete), MuHKA, Antwerpen (B) / 2007 / Drawing Typologies, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam / A Few Artist’s Books / Roma Publications-Christoph Keller, ProjecteSD, Barcelona (ES)

Marc Nagtzaam | Various, Elsewhere, Ongoing | Exhibition view 2020 / 2021 | Courtesy Marc Nagtzaam & kajetan Berlin | Photo: Marcus Schneider