Robbin Heyker: Linking Rings (Part I)
The linking rings illusion is a classic magic trick. Two rings are linked together, and then, at a given moment, they are pulled apart. However, the trick remains a mystery: we are left wondering whether there is a hidden mechanism, or whether it is down to the magician's sleight of hand. It's no surprise that Robbin Heyker (Leiderdorp, Netherlands, 1976) chose Linking Rings for the name of his second exhibition at Galer铆a Alegr铆a, following Birding (2019) at our Madrid gallery. The artist's recent output has been fuelled by his two twin passions: magic and birdwatching.
The accomplishment of Heyker's painting is in the way he interlinks, visually, his abstract forms and the subject at hand. If we only focus on the blocks of colour, forgetting the birds, artifacts and signs, then we've missed half the trick. In turn, if we only concentrate on the specific subject and story behind each piece then we are bound to overlook the work's deeply evocative character, a form of painting that so deftly handles colour, with minimal yet effective composition.
This exhibition revolves around the aforementioned interests of the artist, which are crucial to his production. We see, therefore, paintings that serve to symbolisehis beloved birds; that is, canvases in which the spectator might to recognise the birds from the colours of their plumage alone. We also find paintings that reference the visual games that arise from combining disparate typographical elements.
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The linking rings illusion is a classic magic trick. Two rings are linked together, and then, at a given moment, they are pulled apart. However, the trick remains a mystery: we are left wondering whether there is a hidden mechanism, or whether it is down to the magician's sleight of hand. It's no surprise that Robbin Heyker (Leiderdorp, Netherlands, 1976) chose Linking Rings for the name of his second exhibition at Galer铆a Alegr铆a, following Birding (2019) at our Madrid gallery. The artist's recent output has been fuelled by his two twin passions: magic and birdwatching.
The accomplishment of Heyker's painting is in the way he interlinks, visually, his abstract forms and the subject at hand. If we only focus on the blocks of colour, forgetting the birds, artifacts and signs, then we've missed half the trick. In turn, if we only concentrate on the specific subject and story behind each piece then we are bound to overlook the work's deeply evocative character, a form of painting that so deftly handles colour, with minimal yet effective composition.
This exhibition revolves around the aforementioned interests of the artist, which are crucial to his production. We see, therefore, paintings that serve to symbolisehis beloved birds; that is, canvases in which the spectator might to recognise the birds from the colours of their plumage alone. We also find paintings that reference the visual games that arise from combining disparate typographical elements.
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The linking rings illusion is a classic magic trick. Two rings are linked together, and then, at a given moment, they are pulled apart.
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