selected PRESS
Galley Viewer 2024 (Exhibition review)
LC (Exhibition review)
NRC (Interview)
Gallery Viewer (interview)
The Guardian (Film review)
REPRESENTATIVES
The Netherlands - Bildhalle
Willemsparkweg 134H
1071 HR Amsterdam
info@bildhalle.nl
Switserland - Bildhalle
Stauffacherquai 56, 8004 Zürich
info@bildhalle.nl
Denmark - Kant Gallery
St. Kongensgade 3
1264 Copenhagen K
info@gallerikant.dk
Contact
joostvandebrug@gmail.com
EXHIBITIONS
• 16 May- 19 May ‘24 - Photo London - Bildhalle (group)
• 16 May- 16 June ‘24 - Plus one Gallery, Antwerp (group)
• 6 June -6 July ‘24 - Kant gallery, Copenhagen (solo)
• 11 June -16 June ‘24 - Photo Basil, Bildhalle (group)
• 29 Aug, 1 Sept ‘24. - Enter Art Fair, Copenhagen (group)
• 19-22 Sept ‘24 - Unseen, Amsterdam. Bildhalle (solo)
• 07-10 Nov ‘24 - Paris Photo, Bildhalle (group)
Past exhibitions
2024
• 4-7 April ‘24 - Art Paris, Bildhalle (group)
• March ‘24 - Kant Gallery, Copenhagen (group)
• Jan 20 - Mar 16, ‘24 - Gallery Deuss (solo)
• November ‘23 - February ‘24 - at Bildhalle gallery, Zurich (group)
• 1-4 February ‘24 - Art Rotterdam / Bildhalle (group)
2023
• December 14-17 ‘23- Art Antwerp (group)
• September ‘23, Gallery Marie Jose, London, UK (group)
• August 26 - September 10 ‘23, Gallery at the station, UK
• 21-24 September ‘23, Unseen art fair Amsterdam (group)
• March - May 2023, Deuss gallery Antwerp, Belgium (group)
• December 2022 - May 2023, Martena museum, Netherlands (solo)
• January-March 2023, Maasmechelen, Belgium (solo)
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2022
• 25/09 - 19/11 2022, Ingrid Deuss Gallery, Antwerp (Solo)
• (group) September 2022, Unseen, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• (curator) June 2022, Abacus, group show at Ingrid Deuss, Belgium2021
• September-November 2021, Ingrid Deuss Gallery. Solo Exhibition
• October 2021, screening at the Photography Museum, Antwerp
• 17-19 September 2021, Unseen, Amsterdam
• September 2021, Unbound, curated by Marcel Feil
• September, BLUES at Ingrid Deuss Gallery, Antwerp (curator)
• March 2021 Orange art house. Tributary. Solo show2020
• October 2020 Kusseneers Gallery. Provenance. Group show
• July 2020. Gallery Sofie van de Velde / Wunderwall. Group show
• June 2020. Ingrid Deuss Gallery. Provenance and Progress. Solo
• November 2019. Ingrid Deuss Gallery. Provenance. Solo show
XXIX - photo emulsion transfer on mulberry handmade paper | 280x50cm
PILLOW BOOK
“Revisiting the past they discovered a different truth; unmasking the memory’s elaborate facade. The heartache they felt was real, yet the facts had been rearranged by time, weaving a new realm from the strands of their longing and imagination.”
‘Pillow Book’ is an exploration into the connections between past and present experiences. Much like the Japanese concept of a ‘pillow book,’ where personal reflections are curated into a single artistic space, Vandebrug’s work captures the essence of moments reshaped by time and the impact of our memories on new realities they form.
Each composition consists of over 100 mono-types on handmade paper cards which serves as a testament to Vandebrug’s dedication to pushing the boundaries of traditional photography and concurrently mirrors the transient nature of memory. The compositions reveal the intricate dance between the authentic and the distorted and are an amalgamation of intimate leaf close-ups and expansive landscapes. They stand as an eloquent metaphor for the multifaceted nature of recollection and memory - how it can be both faithful and altered.
XLIV Photo-emulsion transfers on handmade paper cards, galvanised steel pins.
TDXVII Photo-emulsion transfers on handmade paper cards, galvanised steel pins. 90x90cm
XLII Photo-emulsion transfers on handmade paper cards, galvanised steel pins. 90x90cm
Artist statement | E X H I L A R A T I N G ! | 2022
‘Exhilarating’ is a story about light and positivity. It started, however, in 2017 at a dark place. Overwhelmed by anxiety, I found myself stuck in my home in the countryside of France. Inside the house, I had reduced my living and sleeping area to an old chaise longue that stood next to the window, where my anxiety seemed most manageable. Through the window, all I saw was the repetition of days going into nights – from darkness to light and from light to darkness. Getting out of that state, was like learning to walk again, and the 4-year journey that followed is what ‘Exhilarating’ is about. It's the bird that awakens before dawn, but trusts that light is about to arrive, despite there is still darkness all around.
Every moment of light and dark is a miracle. – Walt Whitman
Each work in ‘Exhilarating’ consists of one hundred small handmade paper cards depicting vast and overwhelming mountainscapes, which were photographed a few hours before dusk, each day. All individual works arranged together, in a diagonal fashion, display the full range of these magical golden hours that separate day and night. They are one hundred moments in time, inseparable to form one work, and in turn, connected to become the series as a whole.
As I go through the motions of life, I am aware that darkness will always be looming, but as I’m standing here today, in a place where there is light, I also accept that each moment of darkness or light is inevitably connected to each other – and therefore, as Whitman once wrote – a miracle. It’s the bliss of hindsight, which is also the place where this story – my most intimate work to date – was created. From the moment in time of photographing the mountains, to the mono-type process to bring the pigments onto the paper. And finally, the pins, instead of glue or tape, to secure the works in place. Each step embraces the fragility of the process, and consequently the imperfections that might emerge, that in turn, have become an essential part of the works as a whole.
Video Installation at UNBOUND Amsterdam
“As Heraclitus said, ‘You can never step in the same river twice.’ ”, 2021
As a lasting evidence of the temporary state the Danube river was once in, each screen represents a different moment in time. The installation consists of a single video loop of a drone scanning the Danube in bird’s-eye. Playback starts at the top screen and is repeated in the screens below, each time with a 21 second delay, until all screens are on and a joined up section of the river is formed.
ph. Erika Rodin
Joost Vandebrug (1982) is a multidisciplinary artist who studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. He uses a variety of printing techniques, including pigment transfers and silver-gelatin prints, on hand-made Washi, copper plates, and traditional Barite paper. He embraces the susceptibility and fragility of historic photographic techniques, often paralleling his subject matters, and goes against the photographic tradition of producing and preserving unblemished prints. His art reflects a desire to challenge traditional methods, reminiscent of the Assemblage and Xerox art movements.
Before dedicating his career solely to his art, Vandebrug worked as a commercial photographer and filmmaker. He was represented by Art+Commerce in New York and shot worldwide campaigns for clients such Nike and Superdry and editorials for magazines such as i-D and L’uomo vogue.
Vandebrug's Documentary film, for which he filmed a community living under the streets of Bucharest for 6 years won over a dozen international awards, received 5 stars in The Guardian and was screened in over 50 film festivals around the world.
Awards
11-2018 South Korea, Busan IFF, Winner Cinephile award
04-2019 Istanbul, Turkey, Winner TRT award
05-2019 Munich, DOK.fest, Special Jury award
06-2019 Buenos Aires, Winner first jury prize + Audience award
07-2019 Rudnik IFF, Russia, Audience award
07-2019 Iceland, Icedocs, Winner Best film award + Audience award
09-2019 Utrecht, Nederlands film festival, Winner Debut award
10-2019 Bali, Indonesia, Winner Best documentary film Award
10-2019 Mexico, docsMX, Winner first Jury prize
Publications
• A Life in Tunnels. 2011. Edition of 200 signed copies
• Cinci Lei. Published by DUST magazine 2014
• Bruce Lee, Regele Canalelor. 2016.
Filmography
• Bruce and the outlaw (feature documentary)