Marc Nagtzaam (°1968, NL-Helmond) has been producing a body of work that is based on one main subject: the idea of pattern, the repetition. The repetition and the graphic structure of his works seems reminiscent of minimal and conceptual aesthetics. Most of Marc Nagtzaam´s drawings consist of darkly filled in graphite surfaces. Abstracted elements from architecture, graphic design, details from found photographs, or parts from previous drawings are starting points for every series of works. This source material is being reduced, with basic, elementary means: dots, lines and flat surfaces, to construct a sort of structure. The work takes place between opposing forces: arbitrariness vs. order, regularity vs. intuitive chaos, preconceived rules vs. improvisation with an intention. It arises in the space between thought and emotion, between control and loss of grip.

 

Nagtzaam’s artist’s books ‘Zeichnungen’ (2015) and ‘Farben’ (2022), both made with a Riso Duplicator, were the starting point for a new way of working. Instead of working on a single motif for each drawing, he combines several opposing elements in one single work, through a process of layering various motifs on top of each other, constantly searching for new connections and overlaps.

 

​‘The Same and the Other’ makes this way of working particularly visible. By recombining the results of previous works and presenting them on an equal footing, whether they are sketches, drawings or photographs and artist's books, the artist creates a presentation that not only shows a cross-section of his work, but also opens up a cosmos of new possibilities, whose elements more or less connect, overlap and enable rediscoveries that ultimately lead to the exhibition being seen as a stimulus for a new work, a new book or even an ethical point of view: To perceive the same in the other, but also the other in the same. 

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In 1998 Marc Nagtzaam co-founded the art publishing house Roma Publications in Amsterdam, he still works with today. His work has been shown internationally at De Vleeshal Middelburg, Museum M Leuven, Museum van Bommel van Dam Venlo, Central Museum Utrecht, S.M.A.K. Ghent, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen Rotterdam, Frac Bourgogne Dijon, MuHKA, Antwerpen, Stedelijk Museum Schiedam or Kröller Müller Museum Otterlo, to name but a few.

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​​​The exhibition is supported by Aage og Johanne Louis-Hansens Fond.