Edwin Zwakman puts
a new spin on the long standing tradition of recording the Dutch landscape.
His large-scale cibachromes document freeway overpasses, shorelines,
breakfast tables, virtually all manner of everyday life in Holland's
cities and suburbs. Or so it seems. In reality, the landscapes
are constructed maquettes that have been later recorded with the camera.
Zwakman exploits the illusory qualities of photography to confront issues
of subjectivity with regards to interpretation. He purposely chooses
not to add a lot of detail to his constructions and alters scale to
enhance effect. Zwakman continuously experiments with how much the viewer
will recognize with the least amount of information. As a result, even
when the strangeness of the maquette's insinuates the photograph, our
personal inferences cause a reconstruction of them. Slowly, the process
of interpretation that suits our experiences becomes apparent. It is
this realization that is Zwakman's aim. His cibachromes demand the viewer
look beyond that which memory has already concluded and what the unconscious
has inferred. Edwin Zwakman has
an impressive exhibition record that includes the Witte de With in Rotterdam,
the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. His outside projects include "Framed
Area," at the Hoofddorf Airport in the Netherlands and "No Vacancies,"
at the Myyrmaki Art Center, Helsinki, Finland.
Born
1969 Den Haag, Netherlands
Education
1997 Rijksakademie, van Beeldende
Kunsten, Amsterdam, Netherlands
1993
Akademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Rotterdam
1992 Stadelschule Frankfurt
am Main, Germany
Solo
Exhibitions
2001
Spencer Brownstone Gallery, New York, NY
1999
"Facades", Abbendmuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands
1998
Spencer Brownstone Gallery, New York, NY (catalogue)
Gallerie Accinci, Amsterdam,
Netherlands
1996
Artoheek, Den Haag, Netherlands
Aan zee, CBK, Rotterdam,
Netherlands
Selected
Group Exhibitions
2000
"Edwin Zwakman, Miriam Backstrom, Matthias Hock,"
Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1999
"Bundled", Spencer Brownstone Gallery, New York
"Absence", Spencer
Brownstone Gallery, New York, NY
"Aufnamen", Ostereichissche
Galerie Belvedere, Vienna, Austria (catalogue)
The Photographers Gallery,
London
1998
"Insight-Out,
Castello di Rivara", Turino, Italy, traveling exhibition (catalogue)
"The Global City",
Gemeentemuseum Helmond, Netherlands
"Kleuren van Water",
De Paviljoens, Almere
"Best of", Kunsthal,
Rotterdam (catalogue)
"Hors d'oevre",
Images 98, Vevey/Basler Borse (cd-rom)
"Retrospective of Dutch
Photography", 1850/1998, House of Photography, Maly Manzeh, Moscow
(catalogue)
1997
"(No)vacancies", public space, Myyrmaki
Art Center, Helsinki, Finnland (catalogue)
Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam,
Amsterdam, Netherlands
"Fetishimage", Withe
de With, Rotterdam, Netherlands (catalogue)
"Trapdoor", MK
Expositieruimte, Rotterdam, Netherlands
"Framed Area",
outside project, Hoofdorf Schiphol, Netherlands (catalogue)
"Prix NI 7 young artists",
Gallerie Nouvelles Images, Den Haag, Netherlands (catalogue)
1996
"Open Dagen", Rijksakademie, Amsterdam,
Netherlands
1995
"Cum Laude", Nieuwspoort, Den Haag, Netherlands
(catalogue)
"Uitgelicht", Kunstrai,
Amsterdam, Netherlands (catalogue)
1994
"Les Mobiles de la Mobilite", Theatre du
Residence Palace, Brussels, Belguim
"Grosse Kunstaustellung
NRW", Ehrenhof, Dusseldorf, Germany (catalogue)
Awards
1996-97 Studiebeurs, Fonds voor Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam
1996 Jan van Heel Award, Den Haag
1994 Forderpreis der "Grosse Kunstausstellung
NRW"
1994 Startstipendium, Fonds voor Beeldende Kunsten,
Amsterdam
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