The work "presents and shines a light on a fissure in the homogeneous representation of the community” - Willem Jan Smit 2017
Biography
Willem Jan Smit b.1984 in The Netherlands. Smit graduated from Emily Carr University in Vancouver, Canada in 2013. He is valued for establishing critical connections to local contexts that expose societal intolerance, indifference, and inequity. His multi-faceted practise exhibits a recurring interest in satirising formalist objectivity with personal content, sexuality, gender stereotypes, and swapping cultural habits.
In Double Penetration (2018), two faux-golden vibrators interact with the strings of an open concert piano (sustain pedal weighed down) to produce a discordant metallic sound in the Melina Mercouri Hall on Hydra; in It Is Conceivable That She Will Refuse (2017), the windows of a Thessaloniki waterfront pavilion are chalk-painted in the manner expected during construction or bankruptcy — with the eponymous text in reference to IVF donor restrictions for lesbians in Greece.
Reference
- Aristotelis Spiliotopoulos for Glow.gr, Don't miss: Τις εκθέσεις ξένων καλλιτεχνών στη Νέα Παραλία https://glow.gr/don-t-miss-tis-ektheseis-ksenvn-kallitexnvn-sth-nea-paralia
- Voria Life, https://www.voria.gr/article/nea-paraliaekthesis-ston-kipo-ton-glipton-ke-ston-kipo-tis-mesogiou
- M.X. for SELEO, https://seleo.gr/thessalonikh/252750-ektheseis-sta-periptera-tou-kipou-ton-glypton-kai-tou-kipou-tis-mesogeiou
- Lanfranco Aceti, Where Is The Problem? http://www.lanfrancoaceti.com/2017/09/where-is-the-problem/
- Γιάννης Τζιμούρτας for art2.gr, Where is the problem review, http://www.art22.gr/εύα-κέκου-προσπαθούμε-να-εντοπίσουμε/
- Lanfranco Aceti, AD NAUSEAM, http://www.lanfrancoaceti.com/2017/06/ad-nauseam/
- Museum of Contemporary Cuts, They Were Shown the Door in a Matter of Minutes, http://museumofcontemporarycuts.org/they-were-shown-the-door-in-a-matter-of-minutes/
- GRAY at Unit/Pitt https://www.helenpittgallery.org/exhibitions/past/archived-events/gray-school-1/
- Antrobius, Mash-up My Funkmast, http://antrobius.de/thea-drechsel.html
Group Exhibitions
- 2020 Sculpture & Nature (2020-2022), Schlossgut Schwante Sculpture Park, DE
- 2017 Where is the problem? Empathy - Apathy, Beton 7 Athens, GR
- 2015 Opening on the Foam, Schloss Sacrow, Potsdam, DE
- 2015 Grand Finale, Lady Fitness Contemporary Art Space, Berlin , DE
- 2014 STANDARDS, Temporary Berlin, Kurfurstenstrasse 19, DE
- 2014 D STRCT R, Projectraum Bethanien, Kreuzberg, Berlin, DE
- 2013 GRAY School (1), Unit/Pitt Projects, 236 East Pender Street, Vancouver, CA
- 2013 DANCING with Dancing In Peckham, Performance with Gillian Wearing's video work, The Apartment, Vancouver, CA
- 2013 It’s Hard To Find A Good Lamp, The Apartment, Vancouver, CA
- 2013 VASTNESS with Garry Neill Kennedy and Cathy Bush, IE Gallery, Vancouver, CA
- 2012 Garden Scenes, Dunlevy Snackbar and VIVO media arts, Vancouver, CA
- 2012 PAUSE, Abraham J Rogatnik Media Gallery, Vancouver, CA
- 2012 QR_U - Artistic Transformation & the Search for the Higgs Boson, ECUAD, Vancouver, CA
- 2011 La Raie Verte, Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver, CA
- 2011 Everything In Its Right Place, Abraham J Rogatnick Media Gallery, Vancouver, CA
Solo Exhibitions
- 2018 Parrhesia, Melina Mercouri, Hydra, GR
- 2017 It Is Conceivable That She Will Refuse, New Sea Waterfront, Thessaloniki, GR
- 2017 SHIMMER, Athens School of Fine Arts annex. Hydra, GR
- 2017 AD NAUSEAM, intervention at documenta 14 Kassel, DE
- 2017 They Were Shown The Door in a Matter of Minutes, Museum of Contemporary Cuts, Platforms Project in Athens, GR
Residencies
- 2017 Athens School of Fine Art collaboration with act at MIT at Hydra annex.
