RUUD VAN EMPEL

RUUD VAN EMPEL - ARCADIA

13 May to 24 September in Stedelijk Museum BredaFrom 13 May, Stedelijk Museum Breda will pay extensive attention to artist Ruud van Empel (Breda, 1958) with its major retrospective exhibition Arcadia. With more than 130 works, this is the first exhibition of this size in the Netherlands for the internationally renowned artist with Breda roots. As such, this exhibition joins the series the museum is dedicating to famous artists with a clear link to the city. Teun Hocks, Sef Peeters and Pieter Laurens Mol preceded him.The Arcadia exhibition shows a selection from Ruud van Empel's complete oeuvre. From his development as a young artist in Breda to the celebrated artist he is today. His private archive has also been drawn from for this exhibition.

Arcadia

Ruud van Empel is an innovative conceptual image-maker. With his composed images composed of hundreds of photo fragments, he creates a new reality. Van Empel gained international fame with the World, Untitled and Dawn series, in which children play the leading roles. On the road he has taken more recently, man is absent and Ruud van Empel shows himself more a painter than a photographer. His wonderful, hyper-realistic world of flora and fauna is attractive and frightening at the same time: a new Arcadia. Ruud van Empel's work is in leading collections including the Rijksmuseum and Groninger Museum, Museum Voorlinden, George Eastman House in Rochester NY, Generali Foundation in Vienna, FNAC Collection in Paris, Sir Elton John Photography Collection in London UK and the MoPA Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego.

Click here for a video of the exhibition on Dutch tv