Running into Rafael Rozendaal in Stockholm
Rafael Rozendaal exhibited earlier this month at Isbrytaren in Stockholm. Isbrytaren is run by the London-based gallerist Carl Kostyal. I attended the opening hoping to see him. The place is usually chock a block but I had arrived early and it was empty all except for a good looking man in a suit. I immediately chatted him up, he was joking about a wedding he had to attend this summer…his own! As Kostyal, his gallerist, approaches us beaming I ask if he can introduce me to the artist it turns out I was speaking to him already. I thought only collectors and Jeff Koons wore suits in the art world? Luckily Kostyál is wild and Rafael humorous so we all laughed.
The press release for the exhibition entitled On and On reads “once again staring at a screen” but it is not his digital work that is on view. The artist has forayed into lenticulars, an innovation from the turn of the century. They shift in shapes and colors as you pass them by. Large wall projections intensified by shattered glass are installed. Simple but on point the work directly reflects the aesthetics of Rozendaal’s websites. They create a seamless connection between technology from the past and present. It is a veritable backward post internet era dialogue. I can stare at his on screen work for hours and found the lenticulars to be equally mesmerizing, albeit for a shorter period of time!
His Much Better Than This will be broadcasted on 47 screens on Times Square in New York between 11:47 until midnight all through February. If you are in New York don’t miss it!
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Editor-in-Chief and Principal PR/Digital & Curatorial Services, Cultbytes Building on her experience as an art critic and digital strategist, Anna Mikaela founded Cultbytes to promote interdisciplinary and non-hierarchical cultural criticism. By attracting the leading emerging museum professionals, artists, and art-critics to cover topics close to their heart her aim is to inspire cultural consumption in the public. As the Principal of PR/Digital & Curatorial Services, Anna Mikaela leverages her knowledge, network, and team to find new ways to innovate communications and curatorial practices to benefit her clients. She has held curatorial positions at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bard Graduate Center, Solomon R. Guggenheim, and the Museum of Arts and Design. She holds dual MA degrees, in Design History, Material Culture, and Decorative Arts from Bard Graduate Center and in Art History from Stockholm University. She undertook her undergraduate studies at Stockholm University, Paris-Sorbonne IV, and London School of Economics and Political Science. l igram l twitter l contact l