Robert Vellekoop

Robert Vellekoop's worlds are constructions. Like a scenographer, he plays with illusions. He creates spaces out of the plain, out of the flat, drawing non-existent things into the spatial dimension, employing illusionist techniques such as plays of light and opposing color gradients. Buildings, billboards or TV sets, for example, seem completely disembodied in the room, as fleeting ideas of things.

The smoothly worked surface is cracked and turns out to be a fake, only a backdrop in the room. Utopias are non-places. Places, enraptured. They are born out of hope and bear an abstract promise.

The magical appearance is a superficial deception, the bottle still hollow.

Vellekoop's work can be understood as a biting satire of utopian visions, in which optimism and pessimism are in balance.

Philipp Haverkampf is please to announce the second exhibition with Robert Vellekoop. Vellekoop, born in 1984 in Osnabrück, currently lives and works in Hamburg.