Ger
Van Elk
Ger
Van Elk
Van Elk
Dutch, born in 1941
Ger van Elk constantly questions the perception of reality through his work by contrasting image, imagination and reality. Immersing ordinary scenes in an absurd dimension, he aspires to create a “realistic depiction of unrealistic situations.”
Considered one of the founders of conceptual art and close to Arte Povera (the name given by art critic Germano Celant in 1967 to the movement challenging the formalist offerings of the dominant American groups of the time), he trained at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles and the Rijksuniversiteit in Groningen, Netherlands. He developed his work as a reflection on painting, beginning with painting in the Dutch style. Van Elk uses a number of different media (image, painting, sculpture, film) and takes inspiration from the Dada movement, and particularly from Duchamp’s readymades.
His work was first shown by the Pinault Collection at the "Le Monde vous appartient" (“The World Belongs to You”) exhibition (2011-2012) at the Palazzo Grassi.
Considered one of the founders of conceptual art and close to Arte Povera (the name given by art critic Germano Celant in 1967 to the movement challenging the formalist offerings of the dominant American groups of the time), he trained at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles and the Rijksuniversiteit in Groningen, Netherlands. He developed his work as a reflection on painting, beginning with painting in the Dutch style. Van Elk uses a number of different media (image, painting, sculpture, film) and takes inspiration from the Dada movement, and particularly from Duchamp’s readymades.
His work was first shown by the Pinault Collection at the "Le Monde vous appartient" (“The World Belongs to You”) exhibition (2011-2012) at the Palazzo Grassi.
