Museum Voorlinden presents the first solo exhibition featuring artist Robin Rhode (South Africa, 1976) in the Netherlands. In this retrospective, Voorlinden celebrates his artistic journey from 2000 to the present day. Whether it is a photo, video, sculpture or performance, each of his works can be traced back to the act of drawing. For Robin, a wall functions as his canvas, on which his temporary interventions depict imaginary worlds.
24 April - 26 September 2021
Walls provide an important motif and vehicle. For Robin, they are not a boundary but rather windows to the imagination. Using chalk, charcoal and paint, he draws the sets for his performances on walls, capturing the action in photos or videos. Robin is a true illusionist. With only a few lines, he brings an entire world to life before our eyes and in doing so, he activates our powers of imagination.
Robin Rhode, Chalk Bicycle (2011). THE EKARD COLLECTION. Photo: Antoine van Kaam
Over the past two decades, Robin has created an extensive and multi-faceted oeuvre with a strong individual signature. His work is playful and contains a wealth of references to music, poetry, art, and history. His oeuvre is characterised by a visual combination of street art, drawing, painting, sculpture, performance, film, and photography. His preferred materials are charcoal, chalk and paint and you can recognise his work by its simple and clear language of form. Over the years, Robin has transformed himself from a lone performer to the director of an artistic fellowship with whom he can realise more ambitious productions. While his artistic journey began in his homeland, South Africa, Robin and his interventions have since travelled to every corner of the globe.
Robin Rhode
Robin Rhode (1976) was born in Cape Town during the apartheid era and grew up in Johannesburg, where he attended the Technikon Witwatersrand (now the University of Johannesburg) and the South African School of Film, Television and Dramatic Art. In 2002, he moved to Berlin, where he continues to live and work. His work has been acquired by numerous collections, including those of the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York and Johannesburg Art Gallery in Johannesburg.
In the run-up to this exhibition, Robin made short videos from his studio. He tells you about his favourite works, his sources of inspiration and about his preparations for the exhibition at Voorlinden. View the videos here.
Robin Rhode, Nigerian Sands (2018). Photographic series. Courtesy Lehmann Maupin, New York, London, Seoul, Hong Kong, and Kamel Mennour, Paris and London.