11 1/2 x 12 1/2 in
Sumer is pleased to present Homage to the Circle, an exhibition of new work by renowned Dutch painter Jan van der Ploeg. The exhibition is comprised of a frieze of 12 small paintings (all 2022), together with a commissioned large-scale wall drawing and a single small painting featuring the same palette and motif. This is the artist’s second solo exhibition with the gallery.
Van der Ploeg’s work can be understood, most simply, as constituting playful iterations which meditate on colour and form. His work possessing a modularity which reflects his continuing commitment to dialogues around abstraction and reductive art (both modern and contemporary). At certain points his work makes obvious reference to that of earlier artists' (i.e. Richard Artschwager, or Gordon Walters), yet at the same time, other more prosaic visual references—forms and imagery gleened from utilitarian design and commercial art—are equally clear to be seen. Perhaps then there is apropos that the artist has also elected here to use a title which riffs upon another, namely Josef Albers’ “Homage to the Square”. In both instances, while the title speaks to the respective artist’s commitment to a certain specific shape; it more obviously speaks to the energy that the form it itself, and its ability to captivate, both artist and viewer.
A frequent visitor to these shores, van der Ploeg has had a longstanding relationship with both New Zealand and Australia; regularly exhibiting in both countries, since his first exhibiting here in the early Nineties as part of a Dutch New Zealand cultural exchange program organised by the late Luit Bieringa (1942–2022), as Director of the then National Art Gallery of New Zealand (now part of Te Papa Tongawera Museum of New Zealand). His work continues to be exhibited extensively across Europe, North America and Oceania. Notable institutional highlights include: The Hammer Museum Los Angeles, MoMA PS1 New York, Ludwig Forum Aachen, Kunsthaus Baselland Basel, Museum for Concrete Art Ingolstadt, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. His work is also represented in major public, corporate and private collections both in Europe and Australasia, including: Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Rotterdam, Kunstmuseum Den Haag, Mercedes-Benz Art Collection, Museum Ulm Ulm, Christchurch Art Gallery, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Art Gallery of Western Australia Perth and Chartwell Collection Auckland.
