The painter, draughtsman and sculptor Emo Verkerk (Amsterdam, 1955) is one of the most important artists from recent decades. He has become known above all for his painted portraits of the writers, philosophers, musicians and visual artists he admires. In addition to reading biographies, a photo, together with the impressions and associations it evokes for the artist, often formed the starting point.

No endpoint
Even though Verkerk has broken away from traditional portraits with realistic representations, they nevertheless have a striking similarity. That also applies to the sculptures he has made from 2000 onwards: painted assemblies which he himself likes to call ‘objects’. To achieve this, he makes good use of all kinds of home, garden and kitchen materials which he manages to combine in a surprising way. Verkerk throws little away; materials are reused giving remnants of earlier statues a place in new objects which are literally and figuratively layered. Sometimes the artist admits that he can’t figure out his approach straightaway and he continues to ‘mess around’ with his work. A statue can easily have had three or four different versions before he finds the right shape. However, no work shows a definitive end point; there is always evidence of a possible variant.

Emo Verkerk tries to let the viewer experience more than just the object with this range of possibilities and associations. Works from his studio which have hardly ever been shown before have been chosen for the exhibition.

Curator: Joost Bergman.

Book your tickets here: https://www.beeldenaanzee.nl/