FELDBUSCHWIESNER is pleased to present DAVE DE LEEUW as the first artist of the new exhibition series FW_Window, focusing on emerging positions outside the regular gallery program. The young Dutch artist is at the beginning of his artistic career. His works captivate with his unique form of expression, which falls between urban art, figurative painting and video art. Introduced to the art public by Dutch collector Henk Pijnenburg and former museum director Wim van Krimpen, his works have already been acquired by the Gemeentemuseum in Den Haag as well as various Dutch private collections.
Dave de Leeuw's drawings and paintings are characterized by expressive and energetic lines and portray isolated individuals in urban landscapes. His works in acrylic move between figuration and gestural abstraction, combining characters inspired by cartoons and visual pop culture with the stylistic devices of traditional nude drawing and urban art. This motivical and stylistic remix leads to surreal pictorial spaces, which – in works such as The Hunter and the Fisherman (2012) – oscillate between melancholy and humour, sensuality and loneliness, with abstract colour fields encasing the figures and emphasizing their powerful physicality. The conflict between the protagonists and their surroundings is expressed in the vibrating contours of their bodies, gestural and raw brush strokes, which almost seem to erupt on the surface of the canvas.
In his video installation The Being on Earth (2012) the artist creates the microcosm of a street, in an assemblage of various objects from the domestic sphere, and brings them to live with an elaborate shadow play of animated characters. Each shot consists of individual drawings, which appear to become threedimensional as the light of the projection hits the cake and candy boxes: in this miniature society, the individual is integrated into the community in a humourous way.
Lastly, Dave de Leeuws poetic video Don’t Die (2012) documents the nascency of a drawing in his studio. With its intimacy and immediacy, it captures the heart of his works.
DAVE DE LEEUW (*1981, Heerlen) studied Art and Design at the School of Art and Design in Maastricht. His works have already been presented in first solo exhibitions, among others in the Museum Het Domein in Sittard (NL, 2011) and Van Krimpen Gallery in Amsterdam (NL, 2011). Apart from diverse projects in public spaces, he curated exhibitions in the felds of drawing, urban art and design in Maastricht (NL, 2007) and at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Heerlen (NL, 2009). His works are represented in renowned Dutch collections, for example the collection of Wim van Krimpen, the collection of the Gemeentemuseum in Den Haag and the collection of Hugo and Carla Brown.
With friendly support of the Embassy of the Royal Kingdom of the Netherlands.
