ART ISLAND 2024

m.simons is proud to announce its third consecutive participation at Art Island. At booth number 15 we present a group presentation with a selection of  artists. Please find the preview with text to each of the artists below. Clicking one of the listed artists below will navigate you straight to that particular artist.

Hope to see you at the island.

Michiel Simons
m@michielsimons.com
+31 (0) 6 202 30 900

MELLE DE BOERROBBIN HEYKERBERNICE NAUTA

Melle de Boer

Melle de Boer (Delft, 1972) is a Dutch painter, writer, printmaker, draughtsman and singer-songwriter.

His painterly process is highly associative. Symbols, figures and idioms he uses are often taken from popular culture and literature. De Boer then applies these figures as abstract elements, repurposes for figures of a completely different nature, or outright disfigures them for visuals puns. Through this process, a lighthouse turns into an abstract form reminiscent of Malevich, two letters P are used for boots and an open umbrella get two handles.

In contrast to his paintings, his drawings and collages are literal and figurative. Cartoonish, mostly in black and white and often accompanied by short texts each individual drawing serves as a windows into De Boer’s original narratives filled with dark humor and slight melancholy.

Melle de Boer graduated from the Willem de Kooning Academie in 1995. His work is in collections such as Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken and Museum Van Bommel Van Dam. In 2025 Museum Rijswijk will present a solo exhibition of De Boer’s work. Further to his career as a visual artist, he is the founder of the band Smutfish, an acclaimed Dutch country-noir band.

CV Highlights

The Gun That Shot: Abraham Lincoln

Billytown

,

Den Haag

,

2021

I AM NOT AN ASSHOLE!

Off Hook

,

Groningen

,

2022

DER FISCH, DER NICHT SCHWIMMEN KONNTE

8.Salon

,

Hamburg, DE

,

2021

Artworks

Robbin Heyker

Robbin Heyker (b. 1976) his paintings are intentionally legible. By applying painting strokes thinly on a monochromatic background and showing surfaces isolated in the composition, every action can be discerned. It is as if by working in this way, the artist wants to be able to trace the magic of the final canvas in the steps he has taken to do so.

Often the canvases reference postmodern painters such as Daan van Golden, Blinky Palermo or Niele Toroni. By revisiting essential elements of their oeuvre, he engages in the specific games these artists have set up for themselves. Since 2016 on a series of canvases based on birds he has seen as a birdwatcher. Again, the game element is essential; only when Heyker has really seen the bird is he allowed to translate its color combination into an abstract composition.

Robbin Heyker lives and works in The Hague and in Beijing. In addition to his training at the KABK, the artist has done several residencies, including at C-Space (Beijing), New Jörg (Vienna) and CCA Andratx (Mallorca). Recent solo exhibitions showed Heyker at Galeria Alegria in Barcelona (2022) and at Bjorn and Gundorph Gallery in Aarhus (2022). Recent group exhibitions include A Grand Day Out, Kate Projectspace in Amsterdam (2023) and Steps and Moves, a group exhibition with Willem Hussem and Klaas Kloosterboer at Billytown, The Hague (2024).

CV Highlights

Steps and Moves with Klaas Kloosterboer and Willem Hussem

Billytown

,

The Hague

,

2024

Linking Rings (Part 2)

Galeria Alegria

,

Barcelona (ES)

,

2022

Linking Rings (Part 1)

Galeria Alegria

,

Barcelona (ES)

,

2022

Artworks

Bernice Nauta

Bernice Nauta draws, makes films, paints, produces installations, objects and stories. In her own words, the instability of (her own) identity stands central to her practice. In recent works, installations and exhibitions she has explored this idea through subjects such as stunt doubles, the myth of echo and narcissus and self appropriation.

Take her 2019 exhibition at the institution 1646. For HELLO ECHO, she made a literal double exhibition: each work was copied, as well as the facade of the building, creating a visual echo within the exhibition. Though appropriating her own work, Nauta questioned the possibility of true authorship.

Bernice Nauta graduated in 2022 from Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam, before that she finished her BA at KABK, the Hague in 2013. In June, she will participate in a curated booth at Liste Basel with CLC Gallery (Beijing). Recent exhibitions include The Plantiarchy with GC Heemskerk at Hotel Maria Kapel in Hoorn (2023) and Het Plantiarchaat, Marres Museum, Maastricht (2023)

CV Highlights

Photokabine

at SUNSET

,

Scheveningen

,

2023

A Mirror of all Others

Fanny Freytag

,

Amsterdam

,

2025

The Plantriarchy, with Gijsje Heemskerk

Hotel Maria Kapel

,

Hoorn

,

2023

Missing /Vermist: Benny Snouta’ – Studio visit #6: Bernice Nauta

Metropolis M

,

Magazine

,

2019

Hello Echo

1646

,

The Hague

,

2019

Artworks