Situated in a former school building on the site of a 15th century cloister in Utrecht, Netherlands, Flatland Gallery includes 350 square meters of four exhibition spaces, defined by high ceilings and skylights. In 2007 Flatland Gallery opened an office and viewing space in Paris, on the edge of the Marais and the artistic Oberkampf area, adding an additional 300 square meters to its exhibition space. Flatland Paris is located in the gallery of Gallery Magda Danysz, a contemporary and highly credited Parisian gallery whose focus is digital, urban and visual art.
ARTISTS
Flatland Gallery works closely together with the artists Erwin Olaf, Ruud van Empel, Rob Hornstra, Carla van de Puttelaar, Nazif Topçuoğlu, Carolein Smit, Jaap Scheeren, James Mollison, Giovanni Dalessi, Stanislaw Lewkowicz, Janpeter Muilwijk, Jans Muskee, Martijn Beukers, L.J.A.D. Creyghton, F. Franciscus, Pascal Lièvre and F. Starik. Also, Flatland Gallery represents Johan Grimomprez, Christina Garcia Rodero, A.P. Komen & Karen Murphy and many more artists.
EARLY HIGHLIGHTS OF FLATLAND GALLERY
A few of the memorable highlights of Flatland Gallery include one of the first exhibitions of Marlene Dumas, in 1984, The artist as a young girl (simultanously with one of her first museum shows Ons land licht lager dan de zee at Centraal Museum, Utrecht). Another highlight is one of the first exhibitions of photographer Erwin Olaf, in 1987, who has been with the gallery ever since. In 1988 Olaf emerged on the international art scene when his series Chessmen which was awarded the first prize in the Young European Photographer competition. Many museum solo and group shows followed. As one of the most celebrated photographers of the Netherlands, his work is today part of many private, corporate and museum collections. Another highly renowned name today in the field of photography is Desiree Dolron whose work Flatland Gallery showed at the first edition of Paris Photo in 1997 and for who Flatland organized in conjunction with the Groninger Museum in 1998 her first solo exhibition behind the eye. More early exhibitions at Flatland Gallery include shows for leading artists like Erik Andriesse, Rob Birza, F. Franciscus, Ronald Ophuis and Wim Izaks (to whom the Wim Izaks Award is allocated).
Since the early eighties Flatland Gallery experimented with the convergence of art with film, music, video and multimedia installations. As one of the first galleries in the Netherlands Flatland brought in 1997 the club and art scene together at the KunstRai (nowadays Art Amsterdam) with the installation The White Room, Part II, by pioneer of veejay-ing, the artist Micha Klein and photographer Danielle Kwaaitaal. Amongst other renowned multimedia artists brought by Flatland are Dutch pioneer of video art Lydia Schouten and the voyeuristic multi media work of A.P. Komen & Karen Murphy. Flatland Gallery also showed the work of video artist Rob Johannesma in the gallery and on international fairs; in 2001 Johannesma’s work was chosen in a group show Post-Nature at the Venice Biennale of Video, in Palazzo Ca’ Zenobio. From 1997 Flatland Gallery has participated in the annual festival Impakt for idiosyncratic and innovative media art in Utrecht, for example with life size video-installations by Johan Grimonprez and glass-video by Leighton Pierce. During Festival a/d Werf, the music, theatre and visual arts festival for young artists Flatland participated in 1998 in a group exhibition Altered States with the international acclaimed artist Ugo Rondinone. Other exhibitions include Jordi Colomer (video) and Henrietta Lehtonen (installation).
RECENT HIGHLIGHTS OF FLATLAND GALLERY
One of today’s new rising stars of the international art scene represented since 2005 by Flatland Gallery is Ruud van Empel. Beginning 2009 four solo-exhibitions of Van Empel are held in New York, Tokyo, Düsseldorf and Paris. Van Empel participated in numerous group exhibitions including, in 2008/09, the prestigious exhibition Diana and Actaeon, The Forbidden glimpse of the naked body at the Museum Kunst Palast in Düsseldorf, curated by Beat Wismer, Sandra Badelt and Mattijs Visser. Other group exhibitions were held at MoPA-Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego; Pinchuk Art Center, Kiev, Ukraine; Chelsea Art Museum, New York. A major solo exhibition will be held at the Groninger Museum in the second half of 2011; this show will travel to various countries.
Valued highly, especially in the Netherlands, France and Spain, is Dutch photographer Carla van de Puttelaar who is since 2008 with Flatland Gallery. Group exhibitions include Kunstverein Bad Salzdetfurth, Germany; Maison Européenne de la photographie, Paris; Kumho Museum, Seoul; Daejeon Municipal Museum of Art, Daejeon, Korea; Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, Netherlands).
In 2007 scupturist Carolein Smit joined Flatland Gallery. Recently she received a request from the prestigious Manufacture National de Céramique de Sèvres in France for whom she is creating a ‘Madeleine’. Solo exhibitions include The artmuseum of Bornholm, Denmark; Artotek Cologne, Germany; Museum Keramion, Frechen, Germany. A retrospective will be held at the Kunsthal Rotterdam beginning 2010.
Also in 2007, three years after he graduated cum laude at the school of fine art in Utrecht, documentary photographer Rob Hornstra started working with Flatland. Recently his serie 101 billionairs, about the decay of Eastern European societies, was one of the highlights of foto festival Naarden 2009. In 2004 he received the Dutch Photo Academy Award and in 2007 the GD4ART International Competition Award. In 2009 he was nominated for the ‘Prix de Rome’, the most prestigious art prize given by an international jury in the Netherlands. The sochi project - an independant journalistic account on the dramatic changes the harsh area around Sochi in Russia is undergoing due to the effects of the upcoming Olympic Games - which Hornstra documents together with journalist Arnold van Bruggen shall be presented at Paris Photo 2009.
PUBLISHING HOUSE “FLATLAND OF THE RECORD”
Additionally Flatland holds its own publishing-house. Artist books that have been produced and designed by graphic designers Gebroerders Silvestri from the Netherlands include: Parental Advisory: New Revelations, Jans Muskee; Hope/ Rain, Erwin Olaf; Barbara Broekman. Leading designer Swip Stolk designed the artists books Il faut cultiver notre jardin, Hennie van der Vegt; The calling of F. Franciscus, for F. Franciscus and the artistbook Mary Waters. Other publications have appeared, such as The Flatland Journal and special catalogues accompanying exhibitions.
FLATLAND FOUNDATION
In 2007 Martin Rogge started a foundation to create a vibrant photography collection of museum quality. To achieve this objective the choices made by the Flatland Foundation are based upon the originality, authenticity, artistic appeal and quality of the work of artist photographers. The collection consists of Erwin Olaf, Damien Hirst, Ruud van Empel, Sam Taylor-Wood, Carla van de Puttelaar, Nazif Topçuoğlu, Desiree Dolron, Misha de Ridder, Sally Mann, Frank van der Salm, Hans op de Beeck, Hellen van Meene, The Sanchez Brothers, Keith Carter, Hellen van Meene, Cristina Garcia Rodero, Nan Goldin, Rob Hornstra, Mark Seliger, Thomas Struth, Miles Aldridge and Zhang Xiaogang.
MARTIN ROGGE
Owner/director Martin Rogge comes from a musical family, his grandmother and father played the piano professionally and his uncle played the violin in the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. At the age of nine he started studying the violin. Before he started the gallery at the age of 28 in 1983 with Claar Griffioen, Martin played the violin, saxophone and keyboards as a professional musician in an orchestra and an ensemble as well as in a rock band, a jazz band and a folk band. Martin Rogge is a member of the jury of the Sony World Photography Awards and since 2009 jury member of the Black and White Spider Awards.
STAFF
Flatland is very proud of its experienced and exceptional staff. Director Sales & Fairs, Willem de Poorter holds a degree in business management and art and has worked previously at the Mondriaan Foundation. Responsible for communication/PR and editorial assignments is Fiona van Schendel. She holds a MA degree in history. Previously she worked at the International Institute for Social History and recently as a freelance writer/journalist on art, graphic design and marketing. Lize Kraan works at the gallery as gallery assistant; she holds three A levels (Latin, Physics and History) and is currently a student at the Fotovakschool.
The gallery also works with freelance professionals, such as Constance Gounod, who assisted at Paris Photo. Constance previously worked for the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice and the Hayward in London and today is Deputy Editor, Saatchi Online at Saatchi Gallery in London.
MEMBERSHIP
Flatland Gallery is member of The Dutch Gallery Association (NGA), KKR (special loan agreement for art buyers) of The Mondriaan Foundation.