Tag: schilderij

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Enable & Disable

(Nederlandse versie)

Hereby I present my latest artworks to you; ‘Enable & Disable (diptych)

Acrylic on canvas

50 x 50 x 1cm each

2025

Enable & Disable -Enable & Disable - acryl op canvas - 50 x 50 cm- 2025
Enable & Disable – acryl op canvas – 50 x 50 cm- 2025

Enable and disable; these words hold power to switch on or off. Each time we are asked to enable or disable we take a turn in one direction. This trivial action may have implications.

As individuals we sometimes seem and feel powerless but together we can be a force of change, if we choose to.

Sadly, the global unregulated free market in its current form has been proving destructive to the planet but is now endangering our democracies as well.

At the root of every product is a producer, but then there is also, ultimately, a user. We are that users. Without a user a producer is a king without a kingdom, an empty, harmless shell. So what we as consumers do, buy and use matters. We are able to enable and disable. Switch on and off. With every purchase, we enable someone at the end of the line. We are able to make kings rise and fall and disable or enable anyone who can or can’t handle our confidence and saves or steals our future.

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Exhibition at Nel, Amsterdam

(Nederlandse versie)

The paintings Virgin Screen 01 and 02 and #Do You Follow Me and #Are You Following Me, are on display again starting this week at Nel , sustainable design at Waddenweg 3a in Amsterdam.

For a couple of years I have had a special cooperation with Jorrit Tol (Nel). Stop by to see my work but certainly also to check out his special sustainable design furniture.

The artworks are selected from the Brave New World series

More about Nel: https://www.nel.nl/

More about Brave New World: https://maritotto.nl/brave-new-world-2018-2/

Virgin Screens - acryl op canvas- 100 x 150 cm - 2023
Virgin Screens – acryl op canvas- 100 x 150 cm – 2023
Virgin Screen - Green 2024- schilderij
Virgin Screen – Green 2024
#Do You Follow Me + #Are You Following Me
#Do You Follow Me + #Are You Following Me – Two light-boxes with led light. Part of the installation Dedicated Follower. Artwork/diptych without the video. Fitting the theme.
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Last Gatekeepers Of Lost Revolutions is shortlisted

(Nederlandse versie)

Wonderful news, my painting ‘ Last Gatekeepers Of Lost Revolutions’ has been shortlisted in the Singulart International Women’s Day 2025 Award!

The jury states that it stands out with its unique perspective on the theme of (female) Bravery.

Last-Gatekeepers-Of-Lost-Revolutions-acryl-op-canvas-beeldende-kunst-Marit-Otto
Acryl op canvas 100/150 cm

About the work itself:
Hovering female figures spreading their arms wide open and floating around. They are jumping and moving simultaneously. They are clearly present and strong. The last gatekeepers is referring to a world where young men, the proverbial sons, are sent to war by other men. This is why, I believe, when women rule, wars will end. No mother in her right mind will ever send her child voluntarily to a war, any war.

Last Gatekeepers Of Lost Revolutions is part of the Metropolitan series and is currently on display in Bruxelles handled by Bernice, Art Rental and Gallery in Temse.


Check this work at; https://www.singulart.com/nl/kunstwerken/marit-otto-last-gatekeepers-of-lost-revolutions-54563

More about the Metropolitan series: https://maritotto.nl/metropolieten-2017-2/

Anxious to hear the final verdict, I’ll keep you posted!

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Sea Of Tranquility

(Nederlandse versie)

Sea Of Tranquility 2025 

Acrylic on canvas 

155 x 90

Part of the Brave New World series

Sea Of Tranquility - acrylic on canvas - 155 x 90 cm - 2025
Sea Of Tranquility – acrylic on canvas – 155 x 90 cm – 2025

This painting features 7 alienated versions of me.

I am not truly at ease with the concept of AI, but as an image creator, I felt the need to know where the future of image creation is heading. So I started my first investigation into AI in Photoshop. 

I used a recent picture of myself and simply instructed the conceptual toolbar: ‘’improve‘’. The result of this one instruction was a bit of horror meets a VR-loving alien. A surprising and baffling introduction to AI, but not really a compliment.

I now imagine that in its eyes, my request for improvement could only lead to something that would visually resemble a physical version of itself, just like the creator who created humankind in his own image. As uncanny as this outcome was, it inspired me to create this canvas on which a more sympathetic version of this raw first artificial draft, times seven, rises from a restless sea of tranquillity. 

What AI made of me
What AI made of me

I thank AI for this inspiration, but I am not sure if I will become a frequent flyer, though; probably I will and without knowing that I do, just like the rest of us. She is beyond us.

I’m not sure our lives will get better with AI and all that it embeds and will encapsulate in the future.

 If it were up to me (it is not), I would rather live life with all its beautiful, natural imperfections and oddities with the certainty of death than become a servant of a perfect faceless system with a poor imagination.

This painting is handmade.

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In Our Nature 2024

(klik hier voor de Nederlandse versie)

Hereby I present my latest painting to you.

In Our Nature – 2024

Acrylic on canvas

70 x 70 cm

Part of the Side show series

In Our Nature 2024- Acrylic on canvas- part of the Side Show series
In Our Nature 2024- Acrylic on canvas- part of the Side Show series

The blue letters on a paper bag smiled at me from the roadside, It has been there for a while, at least a few days. Yet it hasn’t been so long that either the blue is discoloured or the bag half-decayed. It still looks fresh. Next to the bag, scraps of what was probably a burger. A piece of grey matter in yellow-pink goo hangs bloodlessly from a white bag, with green limp lettuce leaves and a sliver of tomato as irrefutable evidence of knowledge of good nutricion. A pair of soulless and limp fries stick out of a bright red cardboard container. A striped straw protrudes triumphantly from a large white cup with plastic cap which combined with the red tray of fainted fries gives a festive look. What a happy meal this must have been. 

Everywhere I look I find these silent testimonies of feeding frenzy that apparently had to take place then and there and that after a big burp of pleasure suddenly became too much. Was it too heavy on the stomach to move what was left just an inch? 

Evidently, that which was picked up, wheeled around and nibbled on full of desire and gluttony had to be disassociated from as soon as possible, immediately in fact. 

Those who love blue letters can move from A to B while scrabbling. Those less fond of it see mostly a correlation.

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Insomnia [a bed piece about bed peace]

(klik hier voor Nederlandse versie)

I hereby proudly present my latest painting to you

Insomnia- [ a bed piece about bed peace ] 2024 – part of the Brave New World series.

Insomnia(a bed piece about bed peace)- Acryl op canvas 155 x 90 cm 2024
Insomnia(a bed piece about bed peace)-Acryl op canvas- 155 x 90 cm- 2024

This canvas took me a while. The messy bedding, duvet and wrinkled sheets forced me to look closely and study what was actually happening there in that fabric. I saw so much detail, hue differences in grey tones, fold lines, creases and bulges that had almost human traits, that there was practically no way out. In the second instance, I chose to leave out a lot of detail again, by erasing it. The turmoil in the image depicts my own turmoil from a while ago. This is my reckoning with that period.

2023- Haunting thoughts kept me awake during a period of 3 months. The thought of haunting thoughts kept me awake. The fear of the thoughts of the haunting thoughts kept me awake and made me anxious to go to bed. 

Tossing and turning, it seemed a never ending attempt to silence my restless heart. Tried [too] hard to ignore noises of wind blowing, cats on roof, a car starting, a street conversation, a train passing, a party in the distance, even the comforting respiration of my man and the snoring of my cat. I hold my heart and belly as my breath is too high up and going too fast. 

My eyes wide shut. 

Hoping to shut the flow of insecure and sad voices within.

A glance at the alarm clock tells me that it’s four AM. 

I scare myself.

All I ever really wanted was peace, peace of mind, peace of heart, bed peace.

and I finally found it,

for now.

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Blue Eyed Blues

(voor Nederlands, scroll naar beneden)

I hereby present my latest artwork, Blue Eyed Blues, to you

Acryl op canvas – 62 x 62 cm 2024

Blue Eyed Blues -acrylic on canvas 51 x 51 cm - 2024
Blue Eyed Blues -acrylic on canvas 51 x 51 cm – 2024

A pile of dishes. A mix of plates, inherited from my grandmother, a Japanese Bowl and a hard plastic watercup accidentally add up to what appears to be a gazing blue eye, that’s wide open and sees all. Could things have souls? According to some they have.

This artwork is part of the Side Show series.

More about the Side Show series: https://maritotto.nl/side-show/

Blue Eyed Blues

Hierbij presenteer ik jullie mijn nieuwste kunstwerk, Blue Eyed Blues.

Acryl op canvas – 62 x 62 cm 2024

Een stapel servies. Een mix van borden, geërfd van mijn grootmoeder, een Japanse kom en een hard plastic waterbakje vormen samen per toeval wat lijkt op een starend blauw oog, dat wijd open staat en alles ziet. Zouden dingen een ziel hebben? Volgens sommigen wel.

Dit kunstwerk is onderdeel van de Side Show series.

Meer hierover: https://maritotto.nl/side-show/

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Side Show


Acrylic on canvas
62 x 62 cm
2024

From the Side Show series (formerly Post Hoc).

Two silhouettes outlined on a red and white background. A shadow a specter, the negative from the positive. The sun as artist and the nearly absent body as brush.

62 x 62 cm - From the Brave New World series
62 x 62 cm – From the Brave New World series

Side Show

Acryl op doek

62 x 62 cm

2024

Uit de Side Show serie (voorheen Post Hoc)

Twee silhouetten tegen een rood witte achtergrond. Een schaduw een schim, het negatief van het positief. De zon als kunstenaar het bijna afwezige lichaam als kwast.

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Borderliner

(scroll down for English)

Bij deze presenteer ik mijn laatste werk Borderliner

Acryl op canvas 52 x 52 cm

Borderliner- acrylic on canvas 62 x 62 cm
Borderliner- acrylic on canvas 62 x 62 cm

Dit schilderij is het eerste in de rij van de POST HOC schilderijen. Borderliner is een combinatie van een rood-wit gestreepte verkeersbarrière en een persoon die de lijn van het rood naar het wit oversteekt. Het zou voor veel dingen kunnen staan. Zowel op kleine persoonlijke schaal als op grote sociale schaal. Het is aan de kijker.

Borderliner

(English)

Hereby I present my latest artwork titled Borderliner to you.

Acrylic on canvas, 50 x 50 cm.

This painting is the first in line of the POST HOC paintings. Borderliner is a combination of a red white striped traffic barrier and a person crossing the line from the red into the white. It could represent many things. On a small personal scale as well on a great social scale. It is up to the viewer.