
Last weekend fine arts students of the Royal Academy The Hague (KABK) had an exhibition at Stichting Ruimtevaart gallery and the space next to Billytown gallery.

They are third year students, so if all goes well they will graduate next year.


It also means you can’t expect breathtaking masterpieces at this stage.

Also, generally speaking, it was clear that many students are still trying to find their way.


Well, that is very generally speaking indeed, as the differences are quite significant.

By and large the quality makes one hopeful.


Sometimes you may get the feeling that some more proficiency in even a basic material as a pencil would open another world of possibilities, while other students seem to cling to their subject already so autistically that the rest of the world won’t open up for them.

While as a student you have the luxury to research for four years even the most unexpected aspects of the profession and indeed of yourself.


Thematically the big issues of the day seem to be not really prevalent.

Instead the position of the self in the world emerges as the big issue.


Maybe this is due to the corona crisis wherein students had to rely on themselves.

This doesn’t mean the exhibition was an orgy of self-centredness.


Rather, there was an idea of either closeness or distance towards the viewer which struck me.

In these pictures you see some works which i think were interesting, promising etc.

Let’s hope the students are able to use the next thirteen months to reflect, dream and spread their wings.

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© Villa Next Door 2022
Contents of all photographs courtesy to the artists, Stichting Ruimtevaart and to Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KABK), Den Haag.
Bertus Pieters
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