Maarten Rots

Maarten Rots uses architecture as canvas. He mixes textures, shadows, and reflections and arranges them with sections of recognizable objects to create new images.⁠ He is a street photographer, but neither akin to the French Humanist photographers nor their American counterparts like Garry Winogrand and Willian Klein. Saul Leiter’s influence is clear, but Maarten Rots work also has a painterly quality about it. In addition to Escher, you can see snatches of twentieth-century Modernist masters like Mondrian, Braque and Klee in his colorful geometries, overlapping textures, shadows and reflections. His composition are dense and layered, but not wholly abstract. They invite multiple viewings.

Curriculum Vitae

Awards and Exhibitions

2019 Konvergenz, sommergalerieZöbing, Zöbing am Kamp (A)

2018 Alledaags Abstract, Foto21, Bredevoort (NL)

2017 Everyday Abstractions, Kunstuitleen Amstelveen (NL)

2016 This Side Up, Qlick Gallery, Amsterdam (NL)
Rappel, Friday Next, Amsterdam (NL)
Siting: Kunsthuis Kaayk, Regionaal Archief Rivierenland, Tiel (NL)

2015 – 2011 Siting: Qlick Editions, Qlick Gallery, Amsterdam (NL)
Esthetics of the Self Timer and Other Works with Found Images, BERM Ateliers, Amsterdam (NL)
Momentopnames, Boek op ‘t Zand, Bredevoort (NL)

In Transit Pop-up Exhibition Tour
2020 Fresco Gallery, Almancil (PT)
Fábrica Braço de Prata, Lisbon (PT)
Ler Devagar, Lisbon (PT)
Lapso Galeria, Setúbal (PT)
De Liceiras 18, Porto (PT)

Group exhibitions, fairs, screenings (selection)

2019 Vu-Jàdé – Group exhibition, Galerie Minimal, Berlin (DE)
Artem@Artis – Group exhibition, Kunsthaus Bocholt (DE)
Vice Versa, collaboration with Verena Winter – Koppelkerk, Bredevoort (NL)
Redesigning Nature – X Bank, Amsterdam (NL)
Huntenkunst, Fair, Ulft (NL)
SMIFF, Filmfestival, Seoul (KOR)
Septemberkunst, Aalten (NL) / Bocholt (DE)

2018 Salon 2018 – Group exhibition, Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam (NL)
Allemaal Foto’s – Group exhibition Kunst Centrum Haarlem (NL)
SPREAD! Zinefest, Fair, SIGN+, Groningen (NL)
Huntenkunst, Fair, Ulft (NL)

2017 Septemberkunst, Aalten (NL) / Bocholt (DE)
60Seconds 10 x 10 Years, Copenhagen Photo Festival 2017 (DK)
Huntenkunst, Fair, Ulft (NL)

2016 This Art Fair, Fair, Amsterdam (NL)
AAF Hamburg, Fair, (GER)
Art The Hague, Fair, The Hague (NL)
GET FED Art Fair, Fair, Arnhem (NL)

2015 We Are The Guys x Gustafson, Unseen Photo Fair, Amsterdam (NL)
AAF, Hamburg, (DE)
Group exhibition ‘In Motion’, BWK Partners, Amsterdam (NL)
Group exhibition 175 years Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam (NL)

2014 Group exhibition Arti Select: Interiors at Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam (NL)
The Great Last Minute Art Fair, Rotterdam (NL)
Some Things Perishable , NEST, Den Haag (NL)

2013 Surreal Reality, Duo exhibition, Qlick Gallery Amsterdam (NL)
Reykjavik International Film Festival, Reykjavik (ISL)
Hardanger Film Festival, Øystese (NO)
One Minute Film & Video Festival, Aarau (CH)

2012 Kunstvlaai 2012, Amsterdam (NL)
Screening at EYE, Amsterdam (NL)
Japan Media Arts Festival Networks in Sendai, Sendai (JP)
100Fest, Tehran (IR)

2011 KunstKamers Rotterdam, Noordereiland, Rotterdam (NL)
Group exhibition at C3 Gallery, Amsterdam (NL)
Beeldbuis Filmfestival, Zwolle (NL)
Kobe Biennale 2011, Kobe (JP)
Sapporo International Short Film Festival, Sapporo (JP)
Wereld van Witte de With, Rotterdam (NL)
VideoMinuto, Firenze (IT)
Japan Media Arts Festival Networks, Okayama (JP)
60Seconds Shortfilmfestival, Copenhagen (DK)
Museumnacht Rotterdam, Saratimtrust, Rotterdam (NL)

2010 International Film Festival Bratislava, Bratislava (SVK)
La.Meko Kurzfilmfestival, Landau (DE)
Naoussa International Film Festival, Naoussa (GR)
One Minutes Awards 2010, Gdansk (PL)
FICMA film festival Barcelona (ES)
Rietveld in de Oude Kerk, Oude Kerk, Amsterdam (NL)

2009 Festival Key of Life, Leiden (NL)
Winton Train Festival (CZ)

Awards

2011 Jury award, 60Seconds Shortfilmfestival, Copenhagen (DK)
Commendation of the jury, 14th Japan Media Arts Festival, Tokyo (JP)

2010 Silver award, The One Minutes Belgian Open 2010, Gent (BE)
Commendation of the jury, online film festival Filminute (CAN)
Commendation of the jury, One Minutes Awards 2010, Gdansk (PL)

2009 Jury award, Winton Train Festival, Prague (CZ)

Minimalist photography

Minimal or Minimalist photography is in the tradition of the Minimal Arts of the 20th century. It embodies a style of contemporary photography whose language is simplicity. Her works concentrate on the reduction of pictorial elements to a minimum and the composition of components such as form, colour and line to – often picturesque – compositions.

Minimalist Photographers

Minimalist Photographers like Maarten Rots find their motives in everyday life. They discover them through a very special view of the world. On the always the same, the banal. Sometimes they are schematic descriptions of the topography, sometimes purely planar abstract compositions. Sometimes detailed, sometimes spacious.
It‘s always a matter of reduction. To show things as they are. What you can discover in them – or what you can discover in yourself, through them. If you only engage with them or see through them. To find something that you were not looking for. For us all this means mindfulness and the works of Galerie Minimal are their visualization.

Galerie Minimal

Galerie Minimal is the gallery for minimalist photography. Founded in 2018 by Florian Wassily Kazimirski and Fabian Willi Simon in the creative heart of Berlin, it aims to be a unique center for this wonderful style of contemporary photography. In our online shop we sell strictly limited art prints with bright pigment inks on high quality cotton papers. Photographs like paintings with impressive colors and timelessly beautiful compositions