John Nixon at Superweakness

7 - 28 November 2021

The exhibition John Nixon at Superweaknes is curated by two artists, Machiel van Soest and Jan van der Ploeg who were both, in their own way, influenced by John Nixon. The exhibition with over 50 works made over several decades, is taking place one year after John Nixon’s death. The exhibition is accompanied by a publication in the form of a poster.

As a fresh art academy student, I went to Kassel in 1982 to see the Documenta 7 compiled by Rudi Fuchs that year. It was there that I first came into contact with John Nixon’s work. I was immediately impressed by his paintings and every time I opened the catalog in my studio I studied his work. On my first trip to New Zealand in 1993 I came across an exhibition by John at Sue Crockford Gallery and friend and colleague Julian Dashper told me that he and John knew each other really well. I got John’s (fax) number from Julian and wrote him. We first met in 1994 during the opening of his exhibition at Sophia Ungers Galerie in Cologne, in 1995 I organized an exhibition of his work at Stelling Galerie in Leiden, the gallery I was working with at the time. When in 1999, partly stimulated by John, I opened the artists’ initiative PS projectspace in my living room on the Leidsekade in Amsterdam, John was the first artist to exhibit there. John himself was the founder or co -founder of numerous other spaces (apart from Art Projects), Q space and Qs, V space, N space, where often short-term exhibitions took place with the aim of showing the work, meeting the artist and exchanging ideas. Multiple projects, exhibitions and collaborations with John would follow in Amsterdam, The Hague and other places in the Netherlands and abroad. Over the years, a growing group of admirers of his work has developed.

The energy around John Nixon and the idea of frequent and intense short-term exhibitions inspired Machiel van Soest to take part in initiating a number of artist-run spaces in The Hague, such as Luxus, Atelier als Supermedium, Kamer Laakkwartier and recently Superweakness. It is special that Superweakness offers us the opportunity to curate a comprehensive exhibition of John Nixon’s work, with works from the John Nixon Estate and from various private collections and in this way, just a year after his death, to commemorate and introduce his work to the younger generation of artists.

Jan van der Ploeg

Born Sydney, Australia 1949 - Died Melbourne, Australia 2020

John Nixon was a seminal figure in contemporary Australian abstraction. From 1968, his work was dedicated to the on-going experimentation, analysis and development of radical modernism, minimalism, the monochrome, constructivism, non-objective art and the readymade; which were key reference points in his work. Experimental Painting Workshop (EPW), which the artist named in 1990, but which covers works dating back to 1968, formed the basis of Nixon’s rigorous and long-standing intellectual investigation into the making of art, which over time expanded to encompass not only painting, but collage, photography, video, dance and experimental music performance.

Nixon exhibited regularly and widely throughout his career. He held more than 70 solo exhibitions since 2001, including the Museum Gegenstandsfreier Kunst Otterndorf, Otterndorf and the Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland. He represented Australia at Documenta 7, Kassel, Germany in 1982.

Nixon’s works are held in every major state museum collection in Australia, and selected international public collections include: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Museum Sztuki, Lodz; Foire National d’Art Contemporain, Paris; Stiftung fur Konkrete Kunst, Reutlingen; The Artists Museum, Lodz; Herning Kunstmuseumm, Denmark; Daimler Chrysler Collection, Berlin; Kunstmuseum Esberg, Denmark; Espace d’Art Contemporain, Demigny; and National Gallery of Contemporary Art, Seoul.

Contact machielvansoest@outlook.com or studio@janvanderploeg.com

With special thanks to Sue Cramer and Emma Nixon, SUPERWEAKNESS, Wjm Kok, Anna Schwartz Gallery.

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The exhibition was generously supported by Stroom Den Haag.