Dutch newspaper review Het Parool

Over the years, the paintings of Antonietta Peeters have become increasingly mobile. They call to mind a diaspora, whereby the various works seem to migrate through the space. Each individual work displays its own variation of dynamism, rhythm and resonance. Capturing this essence of movement within and between the works requires the paintings to be installed freely throughout the space. Some works still find themselves on the wall, with which their status allows them to present themselves frontally to our field of vision. Other works have broken free of the wall and are positioned at the edges of our field of vision. The most mobile works are on tables, where they distort perspective and invite a multi-dimensional viewing from above and from the side. These smaller works appear to blur the boundaries between work of art and functional object. They open new mental spaces and, as they do so, accompany the viewer into the wider world.

Much of Roland Schimmel’s work explores after-images – images created in our brain after a visual experience. With his art, he challenges and manipulates this part of the neuro-physical system of the human body. In turn, the after-images that are the visualisations and projections of our brain, are imitated by Schimmel and, with the airbrush technique, projected and visualised onto the emptiness of the canvas.  Looking at his work creates confusion in our brain. Which images are ‘real’, and ‘authentically’ created by the artist and which are the creations of our own master brain? In a flash, the border between these two terrains appears to leap into focus yet, in the blink of an eye, this lucid insight evaporates as swiftly as the after-images that inspired it. The work’s intangible essence reveals itself in the silence of being present, in abandoning the will to understand, and in surrendering to the resonance of the works.

Janna E. Adriaanse