Everything Must Go - Exhibition by Martin Draax
Everything Must Go [Covid/corona proof opening # 2]
Everything Must Go is a series of life-sized pin-up drawings of two meters high and one meter wide, inspired by comic strips, pulp covers, posters of B-movies, and an eclectic cast of masters from high-brow and low-brow art history. Think Felicien Rops, Aubrey Beardsly, Alphonse Mucha, but just as well Charles Copeland, Bill Medcalf and Gil Elvgren.
Draax started work on his drawings with nothing but a 4B pencil and photos of his models. He works about three months on every drawing, and, in that period, uses the paper with the drawing as a table cloth. This way, food waste, wine stains or coffee marks are added to the final artwork, so that each drawing is created and destroyed at the same time. When a drawing is finished, Draax invites friends for a 'last supper'. After the stains are dried, the work is framed by drilling screws through the paper, and mounting it to a blackboard. The screws are not impregnated and therefore will rust over time. The stains and wrinkles suddenly get an unexpected beauty.
Each drawing has acquired a symbolism of its own, and each girl represents a classic pin-up type: nun, nurse, space girl, and so forth. A running gag is that all girls are smoking, even in situations where this would not be possible. Everything Must Go is a statement about beauty, friendship, morality and the temporary nature of life. The series refers to a time when pin-ups were seen as bad girls. The clothes they wear refer to professions and other identifiable groups that once indicated great changes in society, then broke loose from their origins to have a second life as sexualized pin-up costumes. This reminds us that beauty, its conception and its linked morality do not last forever. But then again, through art, in a frozen way, it does. And then again, our perception and appreciation of art changes with every generation just as well.
ARCHIVED OPENING TEXT:
We believe in seeing, experiencing, feeling art. That can be done virtually, certainly, but does it not instinctively disappear too quickly in 'the cloud'? Art is made with a lot of love and attention, it deserves our attention and love now. We create this solution. In a small group of up to two visitors, according to the guidelines of RIVM, you can enjoy the art of Martin Draax. Register
your ticket here at EventBrite in the period that suits you, which is possible between 11:00 - 23:00. We are ready to welcome you.
Everything Must Go is a statement about the temporariness of beauty, friendship, and morality.
"All things of beauty are defenseless" - Lucebert, Dutch poet and artist
"Alles van waarde is weerloos" - Lucebert, Nederlands dichter en kunstenaar
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Martin Draax is a mixed media artist living in Amsterdam. He uses his background as a graphic designer and a pop composer to blend various media into new works of art, which are sometimes naughty, often witty, but always recognizable by their sweet authenticity. In his music, we hear strong and easily recognizable hook lines. Melodies are solidly encapsuled in chord schemes and riffs that referring to Exotica, soul, punkrock and jazz, without sounding 'academic'. In his imagery, we see something of the same quality: popular themes are cut from their regular backgrounds and forged into conceptually strong, refreshing work.
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KochxBos Gallery is committed to new and cutting edge art. Rewarded by Top Ten independent galeries by The Guardian we provide a stage for artists to explore their ideas of tolerance and liberation in art.
With artists like Ray Caesar, Claire Partington, Dadara and Sarah Maple we contribute to some challenging trending topics. When visiting the gallery you will be surprised by high class alienating paintings and figures.
KochxBos Gallery aims to serve and promote artists that add an intellectual and/or aesthetic value to present time. This can be a search in the of (un)conscious motives of human nature - Ray Caesar, Martine Johanna, Meryl Donoghue, Zoe Byland, the emancipation of our society - Sarah Maple, Claire Partington, Dadara or experiments in visual perception - Martin Draax, Bethany de Forest, Ciou.
The gallery tries to astonish its audience with different and surprising views on who we are as human beings. To name a few, Claire Partington shows historical ceramic figures giving intelligent comments on our time, while Feminist activist Maple brings us an sometimes provoking insights on different cultures. The artist Dadara gives us different perspectives on social media and our world while Michel Houellebecq's Jed Martin makes us believe that describing art can be even more powerful as the visual art itself.
KochxBos Gallery invites you to enter an art world full of ideas and artists that visualise these on a beautiful surprising way.
The KochxBos Gallery was established in 2005 by Esther Koch and Hans Bos. A controversial, colorful, avant-garde gallery in the center of Amsterdam.
