Julia Van Koolwijk


All In All, 2006–2007 (textile, photographic prints, machine-sewn thread)

In Julia van Koolwijk's installation, thread is used as a pastose layer of paint revealing itself as numerous colourful and kitschy patterns offered by (current) technology, i.e. a sewing machine with its countless functions. The artist has placed objects instinctively along the wall and framed them as icons in patterns of flowers, or abstract patterns conveying positive, symbolic impulses. The objects refer to contemporary society. Colourfulness is a highly eloquent element of the installation. Colours symbolise joy. And where could we find the most intense joy? In the circle
of the nearest relatives. This work is actually an homage to the family; the artist treats it as a holy entity, but in this context she also actualises the intimate spheres, such as body and religion. The presented bodies – printed on textiles as photographs – are not corrected or
refined in PhotoShop, and thus they bring to mind the aesthetic of photographer Nan Goldin.
And since everything is absorbed in everything, also and especially in human beings and human relationships, the religion of the Alles in Allem installation is polytheistic – there is an image of the Holy Virgin holding a small Buddhist image in her hands. And it is not important at all
whether this is a utopia or an invisible reality – in Van Koolwijk's work, the dimensions of universal holiness are symbolically captured in the stitches of golden thread.

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Born in 1968 in Düsseldorf (Germany). Between 1988 and 1996 she studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf under Professor Fritz Schwegler, and also in San Francisco (USA, 1992) and Paris (1993). She lives and works in Düsseldorf.

Solo exhibitions (selection):

2006 Alles in Allem, Bochynek, Düsseldorf
2003 Heisse Nadel, Bochynek, Düsseldorf
Maria von der Heide und ihre Freunde, Kunsthalle Recklinghausen in Museum Katharinenhof, Kranenburg
2002 Kunstverein Mehrwert, Aachen
2001 Maria von der Heide und ihre Freunde, Galerie Wolfram Bach, Düsseldorf
2000 Galerie Wolfram Bach, Düsseldorf
1999 Galerie Wolfram Bach, Düsseldorf

Group exhibitions (selection):

2005 Pflanzen-Freunde, Studio Maria von der Heide, Düsseldorf
2004 Emprise Art Award, NRW-Forum, Düsseldorf; Museum Baden, Solingen
Frauen im Orient und Okzident, Rathausgalerie, Aalen; Kulturzentrum Gasteig, Munich; Nationaltheater Museum für zeitgenössische Kunst, Bucharest; Goethe Institut, Rabat
2003 Kunstpreis junger Westen, Kunsthalle, Recklinghausen
2001 Und keiner hinkt, Museum Kurhaus Kleve, Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf
2000 Schnitt 2000, Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf
German Bedroom, Gallery one twenty eight, New York City
1992 MAKROVILLE, Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf