[42x60] Sunday Paul Kooiker in Paris Photography

[42X60] calls on an artist to create an original art work to be edited on a 42x60 format.

The artist Paul Kooiker will have to work within this imposed format and adapt to the specifics thereof.   Three thousand copies, exhibited per traditional posting method, will catch the Parisian passer-by attention during two month.   During this same period copies will deposited in various art centres throughout France.  Possibilities of foreign distribution are studied.

This exhibit concept will confront the artists’ work against the authentic street environment.

In concert, the [42x60] internet site will welcome complementary interviews of the artist allowing for a more precise approach and decoding of the work.  The internet site aims at prolonging the artists’ intention and mark in time the short-lived nature of the exhibit. In time, archives of both works and interviews will add to the website.

Paul Kooiker

Paul Kooiker (1964) was born in Rotterdam but lives and works in Amsterdam. He studied at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague and at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam. Since 1995 he has been teaching at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. In 1996 he won the Prix de Rome and in 2009 he was awarded the A. Roland Holst Prize for his oeuvre. Paul Kooiker's work has been exhibited widely. Among his group shows since 1996 have been those held at Maison Européene de la photographie, Paris; Fotohof, Salzburg; Kumho Art Museum, Seoul; Arsenale Novissimo, Venice; Zabludowicz Collection, London. Solo exhibitions since 1996 include those held at Kunsthal, Rotterdam; Vleeshal, Middelburg; James Cohan Gallery, New York; Fries Museum, Leeuwarden, Foam Fotografi emuseum, Amsterdam; Gemeentemuseum, The Hague; Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam. Paul Kooiker has published six books:Utrecht Goitre (1999), Hunting and Fishing (1999), Showground (2004), Seminar (2006) Room Service (2008) and Crush(2009). Between 2007 and 2009 he published fourteen issues of Archivo, a bi-monthly photo journal curated by himself and gallerist Willem van Zoetendaal. In his work Paul Kooiker explores various aspects of the theme of looking: voyeurism, shame and distance. His work can be seen as a continuation of an old tradition focusing on the relationship between the artist and the model, the observer and the observed. Kooiker's obsessive collections of images confuse, humiliate and unnerve. They raise questions about a photographer's reason for looking at things and the motivation behind photographing something. The artist plays a game with the viewer, who is confronted with his or her own gaze.