Daegu Exhibition 2022

EXISTENCE - KOREA

Please click here to see Rene Rietmeyer's interview during KIAF Art Fair 2022 in Seoul.

RENE RIETMEYER  “EXISTENCE - KOREA”

The works in the exhibition, “EXISTENCE – KOREA”, reflects the artists’ dialogue with his surroundings. The Dutch artist Rene Rietmeyer expresses his subjective personal relationship to Korea and several other parts of the world. His works do this with the use of shape, color, texture, composition and his choice of material.
By placing paint on paper, wood or metal, or by using simply a colored material itself, Rietmeyer expresses his relationship to his surroundings. His works are mostly executed with oilpaint, colors, applied by brush or palette knife, depending upon the series, in many layers or spread in thick coats. The artist sees his work not as painted pictures in a conventional sense, he sees himself rather as a constructor of objects than as a painter.

Rietmeyer states that: “The confrontation with your own existence as a human in relation to your own surroundings teaches you many things about priorities and values in life.
The communication with other people, either directly or through my work, allows me to make known my thoughts and my presence as a person. But, ultimately, my work is nothing other than the proof of my existence. Not much different than the 30,000-year-old handprint of the painter in the Chauvet cave in France.”
My works do not simply reproduce visual representational images of a subject. The emotionality and subjectivity of my concept are an expression of my own existence and personality. I create an atmosphere that mirrors my very personal subjective thoughts about the subject.

My Boxes create an atmosphere. They transport my emotional and intellectual relationship with the subject using form, color, texture, composition and a conscious choice of the material. Whether my work is visually attractive or not, is not relevant. My objects mirror my thoughts concerning life and thereby, at the same time, also say something about me, my life, regardless whether the result is aesthetically attractive or not.
My work is therefore more than just an abstract reproduction of perceptions; it includes my reflections, my existence as a human being, as well. The dialogue with my own works heightens also my own awareness of my existence as part of this world. It is an encounter with myself, with me as a person, with my past and my reflections. “Time-Space-Existence” are for me increasingly conscious and important factors.

With my ongoing personal development, my awareness concerning life is growing and the confrontation with questions about life itself and my own existence, are taking on increasing importance. The expression of my “here and now” exists in all of my works but especially the Boxes of the series LIFE express my very conscious experiencing of life itself.
The confrontation with your own existence as a human being in relation to your own surroundings teaches you many things about priorities and values in life. The communication with other people, either directly or through my work, allows me to make known my thoughts and my presence as a person.