Bob van Brunschot | Jescika van Overveld | Ricardo Beltran Mazorra

The work of these artists may be characterised as naive art because of the seemingly simple way in which space, colour, material and detail are handled. But if you look closely, you will see complex representations that spring from a rich imagination.

Bob van Brunschot (Waalwijk, 1965) is self-taught and finds inspiration for his paintings in the photography of, among others, Brassai, Dianne Arbus and Ed van der Elsken. They often portrayed people on the fringes of society, ‘the rabble’ as Bob himself calls them. By reproducing the usually originally black-and-white photographs in colour, a new, autonomous image emerges. Bob often finishes his paintings with wooden frames he has made himself, but old television sets can also serve as supports and frames. Although the paintings initially appear charming, Bob believes there is always ‘something behind’ them. Sometimes it is a reference to the past when the world and daily life were probably much simpler and more conveniently arranged and therefore there were better conditions for nature and biodiversity. In addition to being a painter and sculptor, Bob is also a not inconsiderable amateur photographer. He won the Volkskrant Square Egg Prize (2009) with one of his photos and participated in various exhibitions in, among others, the North Brabant Museum, Museum van Bommel Van Dam in Venlo and Pakhuis de Zwijger.

Jescika van Overveld (Aalsmeer, 1969) works at the Outsider Art Ateliers. Jescika’s work was initially characterised by the endless repetition of small shapes such as beetles, birds and fish. Gradually, Jescika developed more and more. She has become a master in mixing colours and rendering texture. This exhibition shows works which she has painted ‘from memory’ and which are based on her own life: such as her room, holiday memories, the tram stop in her street. It is remarkable to see how she deals with space on the flat surface, she does not use the linear perspective but folds her pictures as it were. It is as if you are looking at the image from the front and from above at the same time.

Ricardo Beltran Mazorra (Havana, Cuba, 1972) has been living in Vienna since 2010. After a few years of odd jobs, he became a home nurse for a severely disabled man. He started making drawings with this patient. It turned out to be quite a pile and that gave Ricardo the idea of working out the drawings in colour. And so he discovered a previously untapped talent for creating visual work that he has devoted himself to with passion ever since; over the past five years, more than 200 collages have been created. He works fast, usually spending no more than two hours on a piece of work. His sources of inspiration are old stories, the richness of colours of his homeland, longing for the sea, expressing a feeling. He uses natural materials, fabrics, metal, chalk and acrylic paint, which results in the characteristic lively and plastic effect of his representations. In Vienna, his work was shown in a number of group exhibitions.