José Witteveen
[Rome, Italy]

Art Yourself Atelier is thrilled to announce José Witteveen's solo exhibition on our platform.

Artist's Biography

José Witteveen was born in a nature reserve named Pikesyl, a hamlet just outside of the Frisian city of IJlst, growing up in those surroundings gave her the space to set her own course, and she studied mankind like a zoologist. After studying at the Royal Art Academy Den Haag and the University RUG Groningen (philosophy), she lived in several places in Europe.

Rome is her hometown since 2015.

She works within the realms of photography and printmaking. Overall the work is strongly influenced by literature, spatial explorations, and personal stories.

"I try to remember what never existed, or maybe it did and it is more present than the figures playing their role in this scenery as we see here today"

-- José Witteveen

About the Solo Exhibition

Odour of Sanctity [ 2021 ]
- Digital Photography, Analogue Photography -

Odour of sanctity is an ongoing project in Rome, exploring the relationship between sanctity and the growing anxiety in these times. The project consists of street scenes and portraits in public spaces. The odour of sanctity according to the Catholic Church, is commonly understood to mean a specific scent (often compared to flowers) that emanates from the bodies of saints. As a person not participating in any religion, I put a different meaning on the odour of sanctity. Fragments of nature which reveal themselves now this streets of this once overcrowded city are empty.

A Lucid Dream [ 2020 - 2021 ]
- Toyobo Etching, Full-Color Silkscreen, Mixed Media Collage -

In this series two projects are crossing and influencing each other: the ongoing research and artist in recidence on Salina, at Amänei in collaboration with Mirka Farabegoli, Joost Oomen and Tsead Bruinja, as well as the project “Orlando” in collaboration with Mirka Farabegoli; caused by postponing of exhibitions and artist-in-residences due to Covid. The art project on Salina is an ongoing research which will extend into 2022, while the project Orlando is about the book with the same name by Virginia Woolf. The perception of time and the concept of gender is one of the main themes in the book, which have been the source for this new series of toyobo etchings and silkscreen prints.

Ways of Seeing 1 [ 2020 - 2021 ]
- Digital Photography and Mixed Media Collages -
Ways of Seeing 2 [ 2021 ]
- Analogue Photography -

An ongoing series made in Italy about moods and interpretations, interactions between human and nature, and the alienation in times of quarantine. After many years working full-time with the etching technique, I started since living in Rome working with different media.
After many years working full-time with the etching technique, I started since living in Rome working with different media.
The most recent is analogue photography.
I found a space in Rome where I have the possibility to work in a darkroom and printmaking studio, surrounded by other artists exchanging knowledge and ideas.
A wonderful exploration in times where a lot of exhibitions and projects are being postponed.

Heitelân [ 2020 ]
- Digital Photography -

Friesland's landscape today is a 'cultural landscape', in other words, the result of a long history of human activities.

And within the emptiness, its long lines and flat horizons, you can see all kinds of patterns. Heitelân is an ongoing series which is still in transition, it portraits the countryside and shows the disappearance of diversity in nature due to climate change and agriculture.

Homo touristicus [ 2020 ]
- Digital Photography – Collage – Mixed Media -

Divorced from there visical presence, the couple seems to have disconnected from reality and is more present in there shared world through there device then in the place on the Island Salina.
A new marriage has been formed between technology and tourism, not being present but constantly filtering through the eyes of the audience. Its not their own eyes that is being used anymore but the eyes of the spectators/followers.
The couple becomes like a filter, a filter in the presence reattributing and adapting reality for their audience short of understanding and experiencing reality themselves.
The lead characters of my work seem to be disconnected, its a observation I find often in daily life too and I think it says something about the time we are living in.
In these observations I ask myself the questions In which degree will we disconnect from place? And is the photograph replacing the memory, and until which degree memory becomes something we can't trust less then before.
And what is the effect of social media in long term in our way of thinking and experiencing...

The Portraits in Rome [ 2019 ]
- Etchings, Aquatint -

The portraits are of people the artist met on the streets of Rome; all of whom shared their stories, their hopes, their fears. “We are all made of stories”. The portraits serve as a platform that enables its subject(s) to engage in a visual dialogue with the viewer.

Frisian Heroes [ 2016 ]
- Etchings, Aquatint -

A series etchings on large scale format, (100 x 80 cm) portraits of Frisians.

On Emptiness [ 2015 ]
- Etchings, Aquatint -

In this series of etchings the artist gives the emptiness in the landscapes a visible meaning. She shows a melancholic rawness, which is also present in the Frisians and its surroundings, translated to (mythical) stories where the emptiness not only gets a different meaning but the viewer will recognize their own part in it. Therefore something unidentified comes to the surface that is often kept hidden, but which is what we secretly desire for and what we long to look at. In the city and the typical Frisian landscapes the characters appear in a enigmatic condition.

Her Exhibition Experience

Exhibitions – Publications – Artist in residences - Grants (a selection) 2021 Arnhem, the Netherlands
The Weight of spring
Plaatsmaken

2020 Athens, Greece
Group Exhibition
Blank Wall Gallery Athens

2019 Rome, Italy
Solo Reason and Madness
Fondazione Marco Besso

2019 Heerenveen, the Netherlands
Group Exhibition Lustrum
Melklokaal

2018 Rome, Italy
Solo Steet Gods and Divine Sinners
Parione 9

2018 Leeuwarden, the Netherlands
Group Exhibition Venster op Rome
H 47

2018 Washington D.C, U.S.A
Group Exhibition Learning from Laborintus
Washington Printmakers Gallery

2017 Rothenberg Germany
Group Exhibition Tiber ob der Tauber
Towarterhauschen

2016 Leeuwarden, the Netherlands
Solo Ik vertrek
Kamer 21

2016 Bergen op Zoom, the Netherlands
Group Exhibition Grafiek zonder grenzen
Markiezenhof

2015 Heerenveen, the Netherlands
Group Exhibition Skiimer
Melklokaal

2014 Leeuwarden, the Netherlands
Solo Open Atelier
Fries Museum

2013 Edinburgh, Scotland
Solo Icons
Colours Gallery

2013 Berlin, Germany
Group Exhibition
Gallerie Semmer

2012 Leeuwarden, the Netherlands
Solo Fabelgestalten en Superhelden
Fries Museum

2012 Duoro, Portugal
Printmaking Bienale
Global print

2011 Leeuwarden the Netherlands
Solo Iconen en de gewone mens
De Roos van Tudor

2010 Drachten, the Netherlands
Solo antropomorfe figuren
Museum Smallingerland

2008 Leeuwarden, the Netherlands
Media art festival beeldintervieuws

2008 Groningen, the Netherlands
beeldintervieuws
Grafisch Museum

Artist in Residencies
2019-2021 Salina “Betwixt” Italy (ongoing) 2014 Skiimer, Reijkjavik Iceland
2013 Greiden en Leithwalk Edinburgh Scotland 2012 Kunstlerhaus Bethanien Berlin Germany

Publications
2014 Book Greiden en Leithwalk

Awards
2010 1e Price 2nd Miniprent Biennale

Her Study Experience

Groningen, the Netherlands
University RUG Groningen

Hague, the Netherlands
Royal Academy of Art