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The New Contemporary Art Magazine
Femke Hiemstra’s acrylic paintings carry a whimsical, absorbing quality no matter the canvas. A new collection, "Sonntag Spaßtag,” offers works on books, panels, and other objects at Jaski Art Gallery in Amsterdam. It’s been a decade since the Dutch artist has shown in Holland. She was last mentioned on HiFructose.com here.
There are many great artists whose primary medium include pencil and paper, but the artist's sketch is not always intended as a finished work. A sketch may serve a number of purposes: it might record something that the artist sees, it might develop an idea for later use or it might be used as a quick way of graphically demonstrating an image. For those who refer to drawing to work out their ideas, a sketch becomes a rare piece seldom shared with their audience. As such, there is a special air of mystery that is associated with drawings. We've featured artists' drawings in our Sketchbook Series on our blog, and in our print issues, where we've shone a light on scarcely shown sketch work by artists like Marco Mazzoni, and Femke Hiemstra, and Mark Ryden, to name a few. A new group exhibition "Lápiz, Papel o Tijera" (Pencil, Paper, Scissors) at Plastic Murs gallery in Spain aims to do the same for 30 artists.
From the terrifying T-Rex to the great Blue whale, some of the most charismatic characters throughout Earth's history have been the megafauna- and the stars of Roq La Rue gallery's upcoming exhibition, "Charismatic Megafauna". Opening on December 3rd, the exhibit will feature new works by many artists we've covered in print and online: Adam Doyle, Brad Woodfin, Camille Rose Garcia (HF Vol. 30), Chris Berens (HF Vol. 9), Femke Hiemstra (HF Vol. 29), Jacub Gagnon, Jean Pierre Arboleda, just to name a few.
Femke Hiemstra's work always tickles the senses with its sumptuous textures and whimsical details and her upcoming solo show, "Warten am Waldrand," at Roq La Rue in Seattle is no exception. The artist (recently featured in a special sketchbook section in Hi-Fructose Vol. 29) is known for the storybook quality of her drawings and paintings. But beyond the naive exterior, her animal vignettes sometimes take on a darker tone. Hiemstra does not strive for a cartoonish "creepy-cute" aesthetic, but rather invokes notes of somber emotions to give her characters full dimensionality. Her playful works tap into her viewers' nostalgia for childhood, but the allegorical paintings offer plenty of opportunity for viewers to see reflections of themselves and the world around them.