Amsterdam Art is pleased to announce the release of a second series of Special Editions. During the Amsterdam Art Week, the participating galleries will present a limited edition artwork with prices ranging between €300 and €500. The Special Editions are on show individually in the galleries and together they form a collective exhibition throughout the city. All editions can be found on the website of the Amsterdam Art Week and can be purchased through the respective galleries.
The artists participating in the Special Editions were asked to create a new work inspired by the theme Metamorphosis, as conceived by Nina Folkersma, curator and director of Amsterdam Art.
Metamorphosis
Shape-shifting has captured the imagination of artists for centuries: From Ovid’s Metamorphoses, in which the young god Narcissus transforms into a flower, and Kafka’s Die Verwandlung about a man who wakes up as a beetle, to the surrealist works of Leonora Carrington that are populated by magical, hybrid creatures, half man-half horse. The transformation of forms, materials, bodies, ideas and substances is among the essential features of art.
In biology, the term ‘metamorphosis’ describes the change in different stages of certain living beings, such as frogs or butterflies, which develop from a larva to a fully formed organism. In the transformation process, the original gestalt morphs into a completely new identity.
The theme of Metamorphosis also points to the transitional phase in which we currently find ourselves: an uncertain interim between a pre- and post-corona world. How will we re-emerge after this transition period? Will we emerge as ecologically conscious human-animals with a heightened sense of solidarity? Or have we instead mutated into blunted zombies?
Metamorphosis is about leaving behind (or even destroying) old forms of existence and awakening new ones. It emphasises the specific role of transfiguration as a creative principle in each individual artwork.