MagaIi Reus x T.A.C. Colenbrander – Parallel Bones
Duo exhibition Parallel Bones at KM21 in The Hague weaves together the work of two makers living almost a century apart. Artist Magali Reus seeks friction and connection with collection pieces by 19th-century designer T.A.C. Colenbrander.
Unruly objects: art and design in the spotlight
On 1 November, KM21 opens a special project by Magali Reus in the form of a duo exhibition with designer T.A.C. Colenbrander (1841-1930), one of the founders of Art Nouveau in the Netherlands. In Parallel Bones, Reus's own work shares space with Colenbrander's collection pieces: tapestries, tapestry drawings, plates, vases and biscuit models that served as models for plate painters. The objects are displayed in an unusual way - works and objects that normally stand upright, for example, are shown at a 90-degree angle with special supports that Reus created with 3D scans. She also created several new works with visual references to Colenbrander's motifs especially for the exhibition, including the Clementine series. Reus' sculptures and installations engage in playful dialogue with some 40 collection pieces by Colenbrander, many of which have not been shown before.
In addition, on the occasion of Parallel Bones, four sculptures by Reus are on display in the entrance hall of the adjacent Kunstmuseum Den Haag.
Jam jar and sardine tin
Magali Reus often works from familiar existing objects: an empty jam jar, a lamp post, a sardine can. Through her intuitive handling of material and at the same time hyper-precise composition and finishing, Reus twists the properties of these objects and our habitual handling of them. By physically transforming or (sometimes literally) enlarging them, Reus liberates the objects from their original function. Despite their austere appearance, the works are also poetic and humorous. What we associate with handwork and craft, such as wicker baskets or baker's cloths with embroidery, Reus combines with technologically manufactured supports from which absurd hybrid ‘things’ emerge.
Colenbrander: Biscuit models and early abstractionReus has long been an admirer of the oeuvre of designer T.A.C. Colenbrander, who is considered one of the founding fathers of Art Nouveau in the Netherlands and was based in The Hague for much of his life. Colenbrander's forward-looking whimsical and colourful motifs are in keeping with the new language of form that blossomed in the late nineteenth century, in which nature was reduced to a basic form - an early form of abstraction. Colenbrander made a large number of models in biscuit on which he applied various decors with pencil and watercolour. He named each of them, ranging from ‘strawberry’, ‘lace’ or ‘powerful’ to ‘twisting’, ‘effervescent’ or ‘tangled’.
About Magali Reus
Magali Reus (The Hague, 1981) lives and works in London and studied at Goldsmiths College in London and the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam. Recent solo exhibitions have taken place at Kunsthalle Bratislava; Museum Dhondt Dhaenens, Sint-Marten-Latem; Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas; South London Gallery; Bergen Kunsthall and Kunstmuseum St Gallen, among others. In 2015, she won the Prix de Rome, in 2018 she was shortlisted for the Hepworth Prize for Sculpture and in 2024 she won the Arnaldo Pomodoro Sculpture Prize. Reus' work is in the collections of Tate, London; Lafayette Anticipation, Paris; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin and Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, among others.