The Breeze, The Air and The Smell

LITHOGRAPHY

of The City

's Hertogenbosch 2005

Exhibition:

Love of The City

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by:

Jeroen Hermkens
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LITHOGRAPHY

ravelling has became a way of living or so called 'lifestyle

mobility' for more people than ever in the past. Many people
want to experience the tourism, expecting the best of the
place could offered. Some of them want to taste the local
food. Others say that they want to feel the culture. For a
Dutch born artist, Jeroen Hermkens, he wants to feel
something deeper. With his undoubted eyes of an artist, he
observes the surrounding even on the corner of the city that
he visits. He wants to feel the air and the smell of living just like
the local citizens. Only with that he would take sketches on
the spot he is interested in the city.

Jeroen's artworks has been internationally acknowledged,

especially his lithography works of cities around the world. He
holds exhibition of his fine works for more than 20 years. He
had potrayed his experience through his visit in New York,
Rome, Vienna, Tokyo, Istanbul, Kyoto and many more. Also
extensive works of numerous cities of his homeland, the
Netherlands. Each of those places, Jeroen looked at the
different angles from his curiousity of the cities. He took
sketches from Railway lines, pedestrian streets, riversides,

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Leiden 2007
even the views from restaurants and cafes where he sat and
drew.

In the Dutch culture centre, Erasmus Huis Jakarta, he holds

lihtograph and painting exhibition as the start of even in 2015

for the gallery. The exhibition shows the best collection of his
homeland's citues and from his short visit in Jakarta.

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With Love, from The Duch Cities

I walked around the exhibition room, pretty much enjoying the

view of remarkable painting and lithograph. The lithograph
series of Dutch cities are exceptionally great. For someone
who had lived in the country for more than five years, when I
saw his works, I could felt the breeze of the peaceful and quite
wind from the 'centrum' street above the canals. I could
imagine sitting down in
the cafe's terrace
reading a book or
chatting with couple of
friends while enjoying
the city landmark

buildings. For those who

never been to the
country, you would
imagine somewhere calm
and ease, places that
you could walk around
and by the end of the

Zuthpen 2007

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day, you would filled by

charm of the city and its

people. But for those have been there, you would confirm it,
you would have those good memories, you would feel that you
are in those places one more time. It's like a birthday present
wrapped in artworks. That is what Jeroen shows his love
impressions of the cities from his homeland.

Utrecht 2012

Jeroen Hermkens was born, raised and studied art in Utrecht,
one of the big cities in The Netherlands. The city is famous for
its cultural, artistic and beautiful city in the country. Compare
to the other big cities, Utrecht really preserves the Dutch

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authentic building and churches from ancient time. The city

holds numbers of art exhibitions and culture events. It is no
wonder that Jeroen and many of Dutch artists could grown
their talents in this city.

Beside the exhibition room, there is a library which the layout

very similar with the one of my former university, very much
Dutch, simple and neat. In front of the library, it displays art
books collection of the artist journey. The thickest book was
Jeroen's collecrion of his beloved hometown, Utrecht City. I
immediately picked up the book then took a chair in the
library. I sat down for almost 30 minutes turning the pages full
of lithograph photos of Utrecht. On the sideline, he tells

Haarlem 2008

stories of each work how much the city has been inspired him.
The focus on his works are not what people commonly found,
he wants to tell that there are more beauty lie within the city. It
shows in his works that he also pay a lot of attention to the
streets, the trees even the reflection in the water. The
definition of color that he used is finely composed.

Other Dutch cities that displayed on the exhibition such as

Amsterdam Groningen, Rotterdam, Leiden, and so on.

Rotterdam 2009
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LITHOGRAPHY

Jakarta on First Impression

In recent years, he visited Jakarta. Although the trip was

meant for another job, it was the first time he went to the
country. For a week he toured Jakarta in taxi and bajaj,
the passenger seat of scooters. His impression of
Jakarta was tremendous. The heat, the chaostic traffic
and the tropical storm of the city would make everyone
to take shelter. The scene of Bajaj in the rain, was taken
from his standing view on a train station as a shelter.

Surprising colours, yellow, blue and

even bright violet. That calls for
making a painting...
-Jeroen HermkensJakarta Bajaj 2014
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LITHOGRAPHY

He also went to old port of Sunda Kelapa, which he said as

the most beautiful harbours he has ever seen. The color of the
wooden cargo ships with natural curved shapes called him for
making a painting. He observed the hectic activities of the
workers in old fashion way, like a man carried a bag sack of
cement. "A feast for an artist" that what he said. He sat down
and started to draw. Heading back from Sunda Kelapa,
Jeroen acrossed Pluit district, a densely populated in the
Northern Jakarta. He was amazed by the chaos alleys where
not getting lost is impossible for a visitor like himself. Until a
school bus full of smiling children gave him a lift. The following
days, he also visited Tanjung Priok, Jakarta's main port. He
saw the modern port was being constructed. He set one day

found was the Bajaj in the rain. In his other works, Jeroen
usually focus on life events in the city and leave the cityspace
empty. But for the first time, he could not avoid people. The
people in the rain and in the harbour could be seen. That is
what the city left its impression on him.

sail on a large ship. The construction was to expand the city

with new islands.

Back in his studio in Utrecht, Jeroen spread his drawings of

his visit to Jakarta. He walked around them for a few weeks to
let the drawings work on him. The images and memories would
come back to him naturally. Then he decided which drawings
were the best representations of his trip. Out of them, he
made mostly paintings in canvas and one lithograph that I

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Written By:

ayu hannisfa
The Author of Blog:
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