Amsterdam based graphic designer Bart de Baets graduated in 2003 from the Gerrit Rietveld academy with a BA in graphic design. A little after that Bart did an Artist in Residency in Cairo and travelled to Tallinn to teach and work there. Today, Bart shares a studio with friends in Amsterdam and works for numerous clients including artists like Melanie Bonajo or Frank Koolen and institutions such as exhibition space W139. Under the name Mosquitoes, Elephants, Mountains & Molehills, Bart has been initiating several posters and publications.
Driving down to my hometown to pick up a car, a second hand black Renault Clio. Visiting an old high school friend who’s pregnant of her first. It’s my mum’s birthday on Sunday. I bought her a big bunch of Chinese paper lanterns.
I send them a copy of most of the things I make, so that keeps ’em pretty well informed on what I do. I do think they sometimes worry if that pays the bills though…
A friend send me a picture of young Hollywood prince charming Zac Efron arriving at the airport, which looked quite much like me. But besides that one image, I don’t think Zac and I look much alike. There was a member of the Rote Armee Fraktion who, back in his Most Wanted Days looked a little like a younger me.
I think the way a smell can bring back a memory is pretty amazing.
I have a rather big variety of soaps, skin-care products, hair products, perfumes and creams of all the right brands on which I spend quite some money. I am quite a metrosexual that way. However, I try to look like a slob to cover up that obsession.
Yes. Without the Rietveld I would never be doing the things I am doing today. Having studied there opened up so much more possibilities. It’s both a magical and an incredibly down to earth place.
I need some concentration to write Definitely
The guy who plays The One Armed Man in Twin Peaks is an actual one armed man. His missing arm is not a special effect, although I thought for a long time that it was…
Organizing an ass kicking 30th birthday party on Friday November 13.
If I were a sculptor, but then again, no…
Aleksandar just graduated the Rietveld and has recently moved to Berlin. He’s an interesting designer and I know he hates the word. I admire his attitude towards design and art, though. This force gets him to go deep into whatever he does and makes it successful. He’s quite headstrong and strict about the decisions he has to make, but they eventually result into something radical that makes the work good and stand out. His website is his latest gem, I think. (Read more)
I have very little to say about Alistair Frost’s work, since I’ve only seen it once or twice. I stumbled upon his paintings at the Liste Art fair in Basel, unaware they were his, but loved them, obviously. Earlier that year I had seen a presentation of his work at the Rijksakademie Open Studios in Amsterdam, where he had created a simple bar-like installation of pieces of drywall. It looked there had just been an opening of his own painting exhibition; Spilled drinks, empty cups all around and those little paper umbrellas, amongst some avant-garde looking ceramic cocktail glasses. I thought it was just a very fresh way to present your work.
Of all the internet-artists there are around these days, Harm is my favourite. His work is beautifully poetic. It’s smart, awkward, edgy (as in about to turn ugly) and sometimes a little disturbing. It’s never really too funny or gadgety. It’s like he actually would prefer to be a painter or a sculptor, but is unable to do so, ’cos he made some deal with the internet-devil and has to wander around there forever.
I came across Nick Oberthaler’s work at an exhibition called The Last Session at De Brakke Grond in Amsterdam. I had never heard of him but was quite blown away by his drawings and collages: The combination of super precise mathematical drawings and the naturally made stains, ripped pieces of tape, old (found?) photographs. It’s a very colourful way of working. I still don’t know much about his work, just that it appeals to me and that it has inspired my work one way or the other.
