MARA LIEM: Dream A Little Dream

During the winter market on December 14th, we will be opening “Dream a Little Dream”, a solo exhibition displaying an amalgamation of artworks by artist and Pansa member Mara Liem*, curated by Pansa Gallery.

Our gallery window is used as a stage for the many different media Liem has mastered over the years, leading the viewer past a trail of thoughts, ideas and stories, leaving them with their own internal folklore.

Besides the work exhibited in our Gallery space, Mara also made a huge mural on one of the main walls in our members space. We ecstatic with this beautiful addition to our KNSM studio.

Biography

Mara Liem / 林留白 (1980) was born and raised in Amsterdam, is of Chinese, Indonesian and Dutch heritage, and graduated at AKV|Sint Joost in Den Bosch in 2007. The myriad of cultures that influence Mara’s work are a reflection of her mixed heritage and her immersion in Nordic cultures whilst living abroad (in Finland and Iceland). She fuses Eastern forms with Western subject matter and the storytelling traditions of folklore. Her work explores the interplay between appearance and concealment and often employs the disconcerting juxtaposition of nature/nurture and violence.

Artworks for sale

Find the full range of works for sale at Pansa by clicking HERE
or by selecting a category below:

* Gallery items will not be shipped. Items purchased during the exhibition can be picked up at the end of the exhibition.

Address:
KNSM-Laan 297
1019 LE Amsterdam
www.studiopansa.com

PAST EXHIBITIONS

Inside Out. by Anna Snowdon
(December 2023-January 2024)

We are proud to present the colourful works of artist Anna Snowdon.

Born and raised in Sheffield, England, Anna moved to London to study art at university. After graduating from Kingston University, London with a BA in Illustration, Anna began her career as an illustrator and textile artist with clients including the Victoria and Albert Museum and Liberty. Following a move to Amsterdam, Anna started working with ceramics and her 3D canvas was born. Anna’s journey into ceramics unleashed a new and surprising world; where 3D meets 2D and the emotion this evokes when form also becomes a means of self-expression; where pattern and repetition play with our senses to deliver something unexpected, whether jarring or satisfying; where an interaction of colours stir an emotional response, whether calming or agitating. Anna explores themes of the regular irregularities of being human and how this might be visualised. The delicate balance of human relationships and the strength required to stand strong in an increasingly disturbing world of digitization. Embracing the handmade. Celebrating differences, the bold and the unique.

Anna’s work can be viewed in our gallery window facing the street, at KNSM-Laan 297 in Amsterdam. Objects for sale are listed below.

INSIDE OUT. is a visualisation of my inner world. After working previously as a two-dimensional artist, the discovery of self-expression through three-dimensional form and the emotions this evokes has been liberating. The clay becomes a wonderful natural material with which I can create a three-dimensional canvas with gravitas.

The form literally informs how I decide to hand paint each unique ceramic artwork. I have always had a deeply emotional connection to pattern and colour, I love how repetition of pattern can be so comforting or triggering and different juxtapositions of colour stir an instinctively emotional response, whether jarring or satisfying. Pattern and colour play with my senses to deliver something surprising. I embrace this with each individual piece.

I enjoy how the process of hand building and painting ceramics enables a slower pace of focused calm. I am with the piece through its entire journey. I explore themes of the regular irregularities of being human and how this might be visualised. The delicate balance of human relationships and the strength required to stand strong in an increasingly disturbing world of digitization. Embracing differences and celebrating the bold and unusual. This is my Insides out.

Anna Snowdon 2023

The Past Into the Present. by Marja Hedeman
(April-June 2023)

In Pansa Gallery’s new exhibition we explore and create a parallel timeline in our window filling it with scenes that depict a version of a past that won’t change and a future that never came. 

With her sculptures and paintings, MARJA HEDEMAN conveys melancholy, sadness and amazement by using themes like family, old age and youth. She presents and invites the viewer into her vision on the past and present. 

Some of these scenes transform black and white family photos of people taken by the holocaust into sculptures, giving them a spacial presence. After adding color, these scenes feel contemporary and alive; not only conserving them but also carrying them into our time. 

By combining this with imagery of her own family and pieces that refer to the mythical she has created a new reality where we can wonder and reflect about our own family, past and present.

Photo and text: Dennis Verbruggen, Studio Pansa

About Marja Hedeman 

Education: Sculpture at Art Academy Minerva, Groningen  (class of 1983)

“After graduating, I devoted myself full-time to making sculptures for five years and I exhibited and sold work several times, including to the province of Groningen. After that, I continued to make images while being employed in another field. Being retired now, I dedicate myself completely to making sculptures and recently also to painting.” 

“Now that I am older, themes of life, such as birth, family and old age, return again and again. The Family Album series shows images of family members who did not survive the Second World War because they were Jewish. By imagining them, they still live on. The Portraits series revolves around emotions such as melancholy, sadness, homesickness and amazement.”

Omar de Jong – Abslt_zr0

Everyday Narcissism

“When’s the last time you’ve done any good? Not for yourself, but for somebody else.

When’s the last time you’ve done any good? Not just to feel, but to do what’s real and actual good.

Tell me now when did you last act, without any form of self interest?

See how everything we do must bring some form of personal gain. So maybe the selfish and selfless are one and the same.“

Amsterdam born Omar de Jong, started ceramics as little as two years ago. By fully dedicating himself to the potter’s-wheel during the various Covid lockdowns, he quickly developed his signature style. His intricate sculptures consist of a multitude of wheel-thrown pieces combined together. Personally he views his sculptures as self-portraits, manifesting the tension between his own social desires and his self proclaimed fear of commitment. 

@Abslt_zr0 I Omar de Jong I Amsterdam

Frank Officier

Frank seeks beauty and value. Looks for imperfect perfection. And is searching for the subtle.

After graduating from the Rietveld he started working as a video artist, later on, his interest shifted to design and crafts. Art and design overlap in his work, and he sees each object he creates as part of a continuing process of learning. He makes objects that soothe, objects that resonate, are still and evoke a certain calm.

Objects that remind you. It’s about the things that we feel but don’t express, left as a mere memory of an unfulfilled deeper emotion. Separate from trends and volatility, but intended to be cherished and left behind.Sometimes unintentionally functional, often not.

Most of the objects he makes are unique, unique in the sense that no two are the same, one-offs. This can be due to an algorithm that he uses in the design, or due to the execution that is often traditional.

“I fold, bend, saw or form, click and tear,

And let me be distracted looking for that one thing I can’t name.”

Frank Officier | Amsterdam | www.frankofficier.nl