Martin van Zomeren is pleased to present ‘Density Drawings’,
Katja Mater’s (b. 1979, the Netherlands) first solo presentation at the gallery.

Katja Mater’s work originates from a meta-perspective and confronts the possibilities and impossibilities of photography. Rather than documenting frozen moments in time, the artist records the numerous ways we can look at and think about photographic images. She turns the medium on itself, and in doing so, disturbs its status of accuracy. Instead of looking through photography as a transparent medium, Mater’s intention is to make viewers look at photography itself. By visualizing areas in which technique yields images different from human perception she shows the intangible character of the medium, using photography as a creating rather than a documenting medium.

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In the series ʻDensity Drawingsʼ Mater ‘draws’ with the camera. She constructs an image on a negative by layering multiple moments in time: while making the drawing, she shoots exposures at different moments during the process on the same negative. The artist literally builds up an image on the negative, while in reality the drawing blacks out. It is a cross-exchange of the visual information; between the marker on paper, and the film in the camera. Bit by bit a photographically complex image evolves, in which the two disciplines become inextricably interwoven. The resulting image is impossible to capture with human eye.

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Katja Mater graduated from the Free Media department of the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam in 2003 and subsequently attended ‘The Ateliers,’ from 2003 - 2005. In 2006 Mater attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (Massachusetts, USA ) and in 2009 she was a fellow at the MacDowell Colony (New Hampshire, USA).

Her work has been exhibited throughout Europe and the US including shows at the Gagosian Gallery in conjunction with the 4th Berlin Biennial in Berlin (2006), Stedelijk Museum Bureau in Amsterdam (2007), ‘Principle Matter’ at V&A gallery, New York and Higher Pictures, New York (2008), FOAM – Photography Museum in Amsterdam and the Dutch Photography Museum in Rotterdam (2009). In 2009, ‘A Study on Colour,’ Mater’s artist book was published by Heden, Den Haag. ‘Density Drawings’ is her first solo exhibition in Amsterdam.


For further information please contact Ayelet Yanai at contact@gmvz.com