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Selection of work including Some Memorable Quotes by… Fanzine, 2007
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Selection of work including The Pop Quiz Hot Shot, assignment for the students at the Rietveld, 2008.
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Selection of work including Write Down A Sentence of Exactly Fifteen Words, one of a series of eleven exercise books, 2008
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Selection of work including I Have A Room With Everything, book for photographer Melanie Bonajo, 2009
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Selection of work including Disney Deconstructed, poster, 2009
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Selection of work including —Mosquitoes, Elephants, Mountains & Molehills I, poster, 2006
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Selection of work including a newsletter for the Center for the Advancement of Recreation and Leisure, 2008
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Selection of work including Well Done Los Angeles, Fanzine, 2007
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Selection of work including Stacked and Scattered, invitation card for an exhibition in W139, 2009
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Selection of work including Visual Music Essay, assignment for the students at the Rietveld, 2008
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Selection of work including Personal Affects, invitation card for an exhibition at Hotel MariaKapel, 2009
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Selection of work including Don’t Know Much About History, book made at a Residency at the Townhouse Gallery, Cairo, 2007
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Bart de Baets
Guest Posting 9 - 13 November 2009
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.
What have you got planned this week?
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.
What do your parents think you do?
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…
Who do you look like?
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.
What’s your favourite sense?
I think the way a smell can bring back a memory is pretty amazing.
Tell us something people don’t know about you…
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.
Did your education count?
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.
What word can’t you spell?
I need some concentration to write Definitely
Tell us a good fact
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…
What’s Next?
Organizing an ass kicking 30th birthday party on Friday November 13.
What’s your ‘Plan B’?
If I were a sculptor, but then again, no…
Guest Posts
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Nick Oberthaler
- Guest posted by Bart de Baets 9 November 2009
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.
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Pete Willis
- Guest posted by Bart de Baets 10 November 2009
I found Pete’s fanzines at the zine-swap event near Bricklane in October last year. Pete’s sharp observations and witty written stories made me laugh. I’ve been carrying his zine Popular Culture in my bag for a while now, which makes it look a little scruffy. I know I should have treated it a little more respectful. But it’s been heavily used and read and has been a real inspiration, both for me as some of my students. Pete’s drawings are quite wonderful too.
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Harm van den Dorpel
- Guest posted by Bart de Baets 11 November 2009
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.
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Alistair Frost
- Guest posted by Bart de Baets 12 November 2009
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.
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Aleksandar Todorovic
- Guest posted by Bart de Baets 13 November 2009
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)
