On Sunday we had the opening of our joint exhibition 'De Rode Draad' - 'The Red Thread' - with Gallery Kaleido (Uppsala, Sweden). Five members of that collective were able to join us here in Leiden, and at 14.00 Lisa Leistra, Cultural Attache at the Swedish Embassy in the Netherlands, declared the exhibition open.
Almost all the Zone participants were present, as were many friends and loyal customers,  and even passers by popped in to join the celebration. It was a busy and enjoyable afternoon, and naturally the work provided the starting point for many interesting conversations.
By clicking on the link you should be able to see some photos of the opening, and the work .
http://www.mijnalbum.nl/Diashow-DMFIXD3P

All the work for the exhibition 'De Rode Draad' (the red thread) arrived from Gallery Kaleido, in Uppsala, Sweden 10 days ago. Monday and Tuesday of this week was spent putting the exhibition together in Gallery Zone, and rearranging the permanent displays to accomodate it.
We are now almost ready for the official opening by Lisa Leistra, cultural attache to the Swedish Embassy, at 2.00pm on Sunday 5 September. .......

the window display will be revealed on Sunday.

Here are a couple of preliminery pictures...
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inside, a glimpse of part of the exhibition!

After a long break its time to start blogging again. Most of us have been away on vacation at various times over the last few months, but Gallery Zone has remained open. At the end of July we spent two days giving it a much needed, and very thorough "spring clean" - this meant vacuuming, dusting, washing down, white-washing and polishing.

The gallery is now gleaming and glowing and looking lovelier than ever - ready to host 'The Red Thread' exhibition, which has its opening on Sunday 5th September. This is a joint exhibition with a sister collective in Sweden (see earlier blogs for more information).

The Textile Blog: Jette Clover and the Graffiti of Life

The Textile Blog: Jette Clover and the Graffiti of Life

While many members of the Zone collctive will be in Sweden this weekend for the opening of' 'The Red Thread', back home in Leiden there are also exciting events taking place.....

The first edition of Festival Iberia takes place in Leiden next week, from 13 - 20 June, Iberia being the ancient name for Georgia.
As part of the festivities various galleries, including Gallery Zone, will be taking part with exhibitions by eminent Georgian artists, under the  theme 'Fighters Against Greyness'.
Dimitri Eristavi is one of the most outstanding representatives of 20th century Georgian art, and his work will be on show in Gallery Leiden all week - for this week only we will be opening on Mondaay and Tuesday from 14.00 - 17.00, as well as our normal Wednesday - Sunday times.

For more information about Festival Iberia in general, or Dimitru Eristavi in particular see http://www.festivaliberia.nl/

Less than a week to go! The exhibition 'The Red Thread' will be opened in Gallery Kaleido, Uppsala, Sweden (see http://www.kaleidoo.nu/  for more information) at 12.00 o'clock on Saturday June 6th, by Pieter Ramaer of The Royal Netherlands Embassy. A number of Zone members will be there to represent Gallery Zone and meet members of the Kaleido collective.  

In September the exhibition comes to Leiden. On  Sunday September 5th, at 2.00 pm, the cultural attache from the Swedish Embassy in the Netherlands, Lisa Leistra, will open the exhibition at Gallery Zone. We hope some members of the Kaleido collective will be able to come to the Netherlands for that opening.

On June 12th a representative of the Netherlands Embassy in Sweden will open a Dutch/ Swedish exhibition at the Kaleido Gallery in Uppsala, Sweden.
Entitled "The Red Thread", this is a joint enterprise between the members of two artists collectives - Zone and Kaleido (http://www.kaleido.nu/), and is the result of two years hard work by Annica Delfos (Zone) and Maria Lewis (Kaleido). Thanks to them members of both collectives have produced a variety of exciting work which can be seen together first in Gallery Kaleido, Uppsala, from June 12 2010, and then from September in Gallery Zone in Leiden.
It is also thanks to Annica and Maria that both the Netherlands and the Swedish Embassies have given financial support to this project, enabling an idea to become a reality.

Watch this space for pfotos of the opening in Sweden, and for news of the opening in Leiden (September 5th 2010).

The furniture and ceramics of husband and wife team Stefan and Nesrin During have been on display in Galerie Zone since the beginning of April. Stefan's furniture can be seen until the end of July, while Nesrin's ceramics are here until the end of May.

Of course the work of Zone-member Frida van der Poel, such as her 'red box' shown here, is permanently on display in the gallery, and continues to delight visitors with its quirkiness. Often featuring long spindly legs, and unexpected angles, it sometimes seems as though her furniture is about to start dancing.

And last, but not least, the furniture of Edward Meijer is also on show until August, and maybe for longer. A picture of his work will follow here shortly!

Last week, from wednesday 25 March until sunday 28 March, Leiden was in the grip of textile mania! The Textile Festival was in full flow, with an endless stream of (mainly female, but not exclusively) visitors from far and wide who had come to admire, participate in workshops and seminars, buy, and generally be inspired by everything that was on offer.
One of the activities was a textile route incorporating 39 galleries, museums, and other places, all with textile related things on show. As mentioned on an earlier blog, Gallery Zone  was part of this route (number 11 on the map!). We were busy, busy, busy.... but it was great fun. The photo was taken at one of the few quiter moments!

This is one of Frans Beelen's unique and exotic necklaces. She uses textile in combination with minerals, fossils, feathers, glass, beads to make her wonderful creations.

Dorothy Wedderburn makes what she calls 'ragments'  - these are vintage jackets which she takes apart then dyes, prints and appliques, before re-constructing them as new and unique jackets.

Thats it for now about textiles. Next time.... furniture!!

Last Sunday was the opening of "Kleine Berichten - Grote verhalen" in Gallery Zone. Every month we have a new guest artist to exhibit his/her work on our walls, and every time the work manages to be displayed in such a way that it complements the permanent, members, work while at the same time providing a change of ambience and breath of fresh air.

This time we have three artists showing together. They work with textiles, but prefer the term 'artist' to that of  'textile artist'.

Hélène De Ridder draws her inspiration from writing and symbols. In her black and white batiks she brings these different elements together using a variety of techniques. Feathers, cut up car tyres, kitchenpaper, clay, paper, Chinese newspaper clippings....  just some of the things she uses for her assemblages. http://www.helenebatik.be/

Jette Clover started out as a journalist, and nearly always uses fragments of text in her collages and quilts. She is inspired by city walls covered in bleached out symbols, torn posters and unreadable graffiti, which she transfer to cloth through a process of painting, rusting, discharging, and printing.
http://www.jetteclover.com/

Rita Trefois uses ancient resist techniques to create her wax compositions on canvas.

Travels through the wide open landscapes of America and China have strengthened her relationship to nature.This is reflected in her recent work, which is also influenced by Eastern calligraphy, poetry and meditation.

http://users.telenet.be/ritatrefois-batikart.be

 

March is “contemporary textiles” month at
Galerie Zône
Nieuwstraat 17b
2312 KA Leiden
The Netherlands
tel: + 31 (0)715126307


Galerie Zône is a collectively run gallery for contemporary applied crafts. Situated in the centre of the ancient city of Leiden, its members work in the varying disciplines of ceramics, furniture making, glass, jewellery, lighting and textiles all of which is on show at the gallery.
From 24th to 28th March 2010 a large Textile Festival is being held in Leiden. Among the many activities on offer is a ‘textile route’ through the city, in which Galerie Zône will be participating.
Leading up to, and during, this festival, the gallery is paying extra attention to textiles. From March 7th the wonderful batiks and quilts of 3 Belgian based textile artists – Jette Clover, Hélène de Ridder and Rita Trefois – are on show under the heading "Kleine Berichten - GROTE VERHALEN" (Short messages – LONG STORIES).
The spotlight will also be on the 3 Zône members who work with textiles. Frans Beelen makes unique and exotic jewellery from an unusual combination of textiles, beads, feathers, minerals, shells and other found materials. Helen van den Brink uses rope and braid to create her inimitable bags, vases and body ornaments. Dorothy Wedderburn uses surface design techniques (dying, printing, and stitching) to pattern and distort cloth which then she uses to make jackets, scarves and lamps.


To complete the emphasis on textiles during this period there will be additional work from ‘guest makers’ on sale. Veronica Pock constructs woven and knitted textiles for accessories and interior design items while Leonie van Poecke felts wool and silk together to create beautiful scarves, hats and bags.


Open:
Wednesday – Friday 12.00 – 18.00pm
Saturday 10.00 – 17.00pm
Sunday 13.00 – 17.00pm




Further information can be found at
www.galeriezone.nl or www.textielfestival.nl