‘Karin van Pinxteren’s work is a wonderful example of human existence driven by the need to dig deeper now and then, and to truly connect with one another. The work doesn’t scream, it is modest and at the same time it’s ambitious as well. Most of all, it is touching us with its directness, moving us because it makes use of the history of art. Like “white”, an extremely difficult topic in art history of course, which proofs incredibly much, like Robert Ryman’s white.
It’s the refinement and precision that makes something special, so you can still remember it even if you didn’t perceive it at the time. To me, that is exactly what defines the work of Karin van Pinxteren, who is able to elevate near-futile things to a level of general recognition, who knows how to turn a simple conversation into something that makes people function to the best of their abilities. Who knows how to unite light and dark in her work, which represent the extremes of “existence” after all, and who, on top of that, approaches painting by incidentally representing the very thought of the frame – the here and there, or the factual here and the fictional there – so well in her work. Like Visitor 7 in the exhibition for instance, a peculiar painting about nothing really and at the same time about everything, which is typical of her work. She consistently questions her work in a very interesting way, she is someone whose constant doubts eventually lead to great knowledge.’
Hendrik Driessen, Museum De Pont, 24 maart 2012
Introduction by Hendrik Driessen, director Museum De Pont
‘How fascinating our capacity to communicate is—to convey what we literally need but, above all, what relates to ourselves, to our emotions and ideas. Though primarily oriented to images, I cannot possibly imagine a world without words. Our perception is, after all, determined to a large degree by the fact that we can also name what we see. The work of Karin van Pinxteren has everything to do with this uniquely human ability; but where a question mark might be placed in spoken or written text, she comes up with a visual variant that actually no longer implies a question but rather a proposal. Van Pinxteren allows us to see and to feel how language can bring us closer together or, on the contrary, create more distance between us; how we can describe the here and now; how to envisage the romanticized past or the dream of a future.
She does so with visual language which is plain but always distinct in form; its dynamics make it highly recognizable and very much her own. Sometimes it whispers to us as a minimal object; then it might be so immense and present that it seems intent on dominating the space it shares with us. Yet it never does lord over us; the work always remains inviting. Not least of all because the word, in the form of intriguing titles, continually underscores that wish for contact’.
Museum De Pont, March 24, 2012
Karin van Pinxteren 