As part of VITRINE’s gallery collaboration programme in Bermondsey, Dürst Britt & Mayhew (The Hague, NL) and VITRINE are proud to present the first solo exhibition of Willem Hussem’s work in London. The presentation focuses on paintings from the 1960s and 70s and includes a selection of Hussem’s characteristic short poems.

Willem Hussem (1900-1974) was a renowned Dutch artist & poet who continually experimented and produced highly diverse works of art, including painting, drawing and sculpture. A constant aspiration towards simplicity and purity underlies his entire oeuvre. It was in Zen Bhuddism that he found the intellectual basis for the universalistic outlook on the world that would determine his thought and work.

Dürst Britt & Mayhew is proud to present a three day only pop-up exhibition of works by Alejandra Venegas in the gallery space of Billytown in The Hague. The exhibition will combine Venegas’ well-known woodcarvings with her lesser known works on paper.

Mexican artist Alejandra Venegas uses an unusual surface to paint on, namely carved wood. She hand carves landscape scenes and natural motives from various sorts of wood native to Mexico, after which she colours them with gouache or oil. Uniting the natural, warm tones of the wood with stridently bright shades is a contrast she actively seeks for. Incorporating the natural irregularities of the wood makes it much more than just a panel to paint on and gives the work a definite sculptural character. For Venegas, these works have therefore become a meeting place between painting, sculpture and drawing.

Dürst Britt & Mayhew is proud to present works by Alejandra Venegas and Alex Farrar in the context of Madragoa HOTEL. Madragoa HOTEL is an initiative by Galeria Madragoa, inviting international galleries to use their space at Rua do Machadinho 45 in Lisbon, Portugal.

The duo exhibition ‘Downpour’ encompasses works that thematically touch on the various manifestations of water. Water flows in seas and rivers, evaporates in the air, transforms itself into clouds, and returns to earth in the form of rain. We do not relate to it only in a visual way, but also bodily. Everyone knows the sensation of water flowing over their hands or sweat trickling down their back. Of standing in the rain, under a waterfall, or anxiously waiting for an exam, a job interview or a date. This exhibition juxtaposes visualisations of water as found in our natural surroundings and as a bodily residue. 

Visual artist and poet Willem Hussem (1900-1974) did not shy away from experimenting and created a wide variety of works of art, including paintings, drawings and sculptures. A constant pursuit of simplicity and purity underpinned his entire oeuvre. It was in Zen Buddhism and the philosophy of Hegel that he found the intellectual basis for the universal view of the world that would determine his thinking and work.

Hussem spent his entire life looking for a way of working that matched his philosophical views. In poetry he found this in short texts, while in art he initially found a style that was somewhere between expressionism and constructivism, eventually culminating in geometric abstraction. 

From 1936 to 1974, Willem Hussem lived and worked in The Hague, where he was considered the frontman of the cultural avant-garde. For example, in 1960 he represented the Netherlands at the Venice Biennale. During his years in The Hague, Hussem was a leading member of Pulchri Studio. Between 1946 and 1972 he participated almost annually in the spring and autumn exhibitions as well as the Hague Salon exhibitions. His last solo presentation at Pulchri was in 1978.

Sybren Renema’s interest lies in all forms of human knowledge-production, with a particular liking for art, history, geographical exploration and the natural sciences. His work is often concerned with narratives of exploration and the sublime landscape, in which he focuses on the validity of Romantic clichés in the 21st century. 

His latest videowork ‘Discovery’ follows a piece of wood from the deck of British polar explorer Robert Falcon Scott’s (1868-1912) first polar vessel, the Discovery, as it floats through the stratosphere. For this video Renema collaborated with SendIntoSpace, a company that specialises in commercial flights with stratospheric weather balloons. Point of launch was Dundee, where the restored Discovery can be visited. After having reached a height of 32 kilometers, the wooden relic and camera landed back in the North of England and were recovered using GPS. The continuity between polar travel and space flight, which Renema highlights with this work, is a phenomenon that has often been commented upon. Besides this, the work reflects on the general human tendency to escapism.

The neon sculpture accompanying the video quotes Robert Falcon Scott. ‘Great God! This is an awful place’ are the words he wrote in his diary as he reached the South Pole and found it to have already been visited by a Norwegian expedition under Roald Amundsen. In 2017 both video and neon were shown at the Antarctic Pavilion as part of the Venice Biennial. At LETO a series of collages showing images of snowy mountains now form an extra layer in this Antarctic storyline. Taken from old editions of National Geographic magazine, inhospitable areas turn into hallucinatory beauty.