New Zealand born artist Maja Klaassens focuses on the ways domestic and natural environments are often written in opposition to one another, and how this influences our perception of the world around us. Her solo presentation at Art Antwerp posits the everyday as a stage upon which fragmented and incomplete narratives generate suspense.
Three distinct series of works will be on show. 'Washing' consists of personal and found textiles, which are meticulously folded into rectangular wooden boxes. 'Nightstand' is a series of lifelike nightstands, filled with objects, and completely constructed as if carved from stone. Both series present us with stories of domesticity, intimacy and care, although the protagonist seems to have left the room.
These two series of works are partnered with paintings from Klaassens’ ‘Grass’ series. In these works, blades of grass painted with single brushstrokes form intimate stories like words on a page. Through variations in tone and composition, each painting becomes its own distinct world. Ambiguous impressions left behind in the grass point toward the incomplete — for every viewer traces of a different subject or event. Their simplicity is deceptive, and even though they appear realistic, their lushness, greenness, and uniformity makes them somehow unreal.
This year three 'Grass' paintings were exhibited at Museum MORE in Gorssel and three 'Washings' have been acquired by Museum Voorlinden in Wassenaar.
Maja Klaassens (1989, New Zealand) obtained her BFA from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague in 2014, and her MA in Contemporary Art History from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in 2021. Recent solo and duo exhibitions include ‘A Line of Stones’ at Dürst Britt & Mayhew, ’The view is total sea’ at Joys in Toronto, Canada, 'Niek Kemps & Maja Klaassens’ at lxhxb in Eindhoven, Netherlands, Cache (with Christofer Degrér) at Billytown and ‘Orca’ at Dürst Britt & Mayhew, both in The Hague. Recent group exhibitions include 'Reality Check' at Museum MORE in Ruurlo, The Netherlands, ‘Mountain Friends’ at Fred & Ferry in Antwerp, Belgium, '秋' at SLoõPW in Beijing, ‘After Daan van Golden’ at Parts Project and ‘RSVP’ at Billytown, both in The Hague.
Work by Klaassens is held in private and public collections, including Museum Voorlinden in Wassenaar.
A specially commissioned interview with Maja Klaassens by Sito Rozema, curator at Museum MORE in Gorssel, can be read here
We thank the Mondriaan Fund for kindly supporting this presentation.
