The Galerie Fontana presents the first solo exhibition of Jacquie Maria Wessels at the gallery, titled Exploring the Fields. The first of Dubious Appeal will be presented alongside the artist’s previous works from his series Garage Stills, Fringe Nature et Memory Master. Diverse in their thematic underpinnings, Jacquie Maria Wessels’ analog photography is as poetic as it is sinister.
Garage Stills is striking with its surprising use of color. During her visits to different garages, from Amsterdam to Sri Lanka, she explores these wonderful spaces by creating still lifes on site with the intriguing and personal objects she finds there. This series can be considered as a precursor of Fringe Naturein which Jacquie Maria Wessels goes beyond the car garages and turns her lens towards the traces of nature in the immediate vicinity. The faint presence of foliage recalls the modernist battle between nature and urban spaces. The metanarrative of this work refers to current changes in the automotive industry as the relationship between environmentalism and technology emerges.
In Dubious AppealWessels examines the tension between nature and industry in more detail. The flowers, colors and shapes of these compositions seduce the viewer, but at the same time have something threatening. They play with the (unconscious) appeal of packaging items with attractive designs, patterns and shades inspired by nature. All is not what it seems in these analog photographs; what appears to be flowers may not be. The material intended to be thrown away is found among its figurative counterparts.
Memory Master has a visual language similar to Fringe Nature et Dubious Appeal in pictorial imagery and representations of nature, a phantasmagorical sequence. However, works on wavy silk represent the memory of the places you may have visited. The almost mysterious impressionistic images bring back lost memories. There Memory Master Tree Installation (2021) plays with the idea that trees can capture memories as witnesses to what is happening. Since 1988, Jacquie Maria Wessels has produced this series, which she captures with a 35mm analog camera.
The work of Jacquie Maria Wessels is exhibited worldwide and is part of the collections of several museums, including the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam (NL), the Musée de la Photographie Charleroi (BE), Huis Marseille – Museum for Photography Amsterdam (NL), Vincent van GoghHuis ( NL) and the Surinamese Museum of Paramaribo (SR). In 2023, Ludion (BE) published the photo book Garage Stills & Fringe Nature.
Jacquie Maria Wessels – Exploring the Fields
Until January 18, 2025
Galerie Fontana
Lauriergracht 142
1016 RT Amsterdam, the Netherlands
www.galeriefontana.com
www.jacquiemariawessels.nl
