Phoebus Rotterdam
Eendrachtsweg 61 3012 LG Rotterdam
Fri–Sun 12.30-17.30
Wed/Thu by appointment only
Website
5 Sep–19 Oct
Main Gallery: 'Perfect Friend, perfect Lovers' - Célio Braga, solo exhibition
Célio Braga is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice fluidly crosses photography, painting, drawing, textiles, and sculpture. Pushing materials and techniques to their limits—through cycles of construction, destruction, and reconstruction—he embraces unusual processes and references a broad range of visual languages, from applied arts to craft traditions. His work embodies impermanence, doubt, and transformation, while conceptually engaging with the fragility of the body, presence and absence, time, violence, religion, and sexuality.
Perfect Friends unfolds as a series of 42 intimate portraits, each composed from men’s shirts once worn and given by friends, friends of friends, and acquaintances. Cut into fragments, the fabric is mounted on wooden stretchers and laboriously hand-sewn, transforming into a delicate, skin-like surface.
Perfect Lovers extends this dialogue into love. This series of ten diptychs portrays gay couples and long-time companions, also crafted from gifted shirts. Here, fabric becomes witness: threads and seams binding together the intimacies of affection, loyalty, and shared life.
**7 Sep | Sun | 15.00–17.00 Exhibition Opening
**13 Sep | Sat | 14.00 Discussion – 15 Dutch
and French artists on feminist themes. 15.30–17.00 – Guided
tour by artists. (13–14 Sep: Open Monumentendagen)
26 Oct–7 Dec
Main Gallery: 'Millefleurs' – Esther Bruggink, solo exhibition.
Esther Bruggink's (Groningen, 1971) sculptures often originate from fairy tales and myths, yet each creates its own unique narrative, in which an underlying, poignant tension is palpable. Bruggink emphasises the vulnerability of her creations not only through their subject matter but also through their materials. The polyester film she uses is fragile and translucent, hand-sewn in pieces with a surgical needle. Sometimes, she applies a layer of embroidery thread or red-dyed rubber directly beneath the film, like branches within the body that only become visible through backlighting on the transparent surface of the polyester. Bruggink's recent work is different in both material and appearance. While her earlier work is light, expectant, and resigned to its fate, her new job seems to scream from within. The innocent vulnerability goes hand in hand with an oppressive inner turmoil.
**26 Oct | Sun | 15.00–17.00: Exhibition Opening
20 Sep -19 Oct
Project Room: Eric Cruikshank, paintings
**19-20 Sep | Fri-Sat | 15.00–17.00 Come and have a look at the process of Eric's painting.
Eric Cruikshank (born Inverness 1975) graduated with a BA (hons) painting and drawing from Edinburgh College of Art in 1997 and lives and works in Edinburgh.
His artworks have been included in exhibitions throughout the UK, Europe, America, and Japan, and he has been the recipient of several awards and residencies.
Cruikshank’s artistic practice spans an array of media with distinct series bracketed according to support - with the collective factor being the addition and subtraction of medium - all completed with a meticulous finish.
Taking landscape as an initial starting point, Cruikshank’s paintings are not about literal representation, instead the focus is on the emotive qualities of place. Using an objective palette tied to the Scottish landscape, colour acts as a vehicle to reveal the picture planes underlying points of reference; with the works being grounded in the everyday, the viewer is encouraged to readdress notions of their surroundings, where the familiar is opened up and made full of possibility.
until 13 Sep
Ladenkastproject: Sixteen small exhibitions in 16 drawers, featuring a total of 82 works by various artists. Curated by Dominique De Beir.
20 Sep-7 Dec
Ladenkastproject: 8 new installations with Emily Kocken, Ceola Tunstall-Behrens, Ursina Guldenmond-Netzer, Bima Engels, Liesbeth van der Zee, Gert-Jan Prins, Boyd Brian Smith, among others.
**20 Sep | Sun | 15.00–17.00 Exhibition Opening
