The new Dreamscape book has been released and I travelled to Amsterdam for the book launch and exhibition. The new Dreamscapes 2009 book represents 52 artists working in imaginary realism from around the world and has 164 pages in full color. As always, the print quality is from the highest level.
My friend Ella Buzo from Cabinodd was one of the organizers for the exhibition. She was working with Marcel Salome the publisher and director of the project. It was Marcel who greeted me first as I entered the door to the exhibition. He said he recognized me from images on the internet and welcomed me warmly. And so it was throughout the evening, finally meeting people who were until that time were no more than a data stream on my computer or perhaps images in a book. Meeting all of these artists certainly was one of the things that attracted me to the event, but more overly it was a chance to see a little bit of Fantastic art history in the making.
The book is the third in the Dreamscapes series. I have the two previous Dreamscape books. The project has continued to grow in strength and mature. A large hall was rented to accomodate all of the works for the exhibition. It looked impressive. Dreamscape unites art movements like magic realism, fantastic realism and surrealism under the collective name Imaginary Realism and brings them with various projects to the worldwide and well deserved attention.
I struggled to look at all of the artwork in detail as much of the evening was spent meeting people. What I did see was of superb quality. Amongst the new faces were one or two that I already knew, such as Brigid Marlin, Igor Grechanyk and Rardy Van Soest.
Many artists had brought books and catalogues to give away or swap. I am very pleased to say that I collected a number of them myself, including a copy of Dreamscapes presented to me by Marcel himself. I had also brought my copy of Jon Beinart‘s Metamorphosis book along to gather a few more signatures.
With so many artists to talk to time was quickly gone and the exhibition opening came to an end. However we all made our way over to a boat restaurant. Brigid called me over to join her table, with Steven Kenny, Rene Zwaga, his wife and Rardy Van Soest. Again time passed quickly and people eventually made their way home.
Many artists had made long journeys to attend, some longer than mine from Berlin to Amsterdam. The journey was well worth the effort to meet the artists and see their artwork. I hope we see many more such events to come.
Participating artists:
Michael Parkes · Lukas Kandl · Bruno Di Maio · Gerard Di Maccio · Herman Smorenburg · Michael Cheval · Ans Markus · Bodi · Fabrizio Riccardi · Victoria Francisco · Imke Meester · Richard van der Koppel · Jake Baddeley · Bas Sebus · Jolanda Richter · Ray Donley · Gabriela Garza-Padilla Adam Rote · Daniel Merriam · David Bowers · Gabriel Meiring · Igor Grechanyk · Jean Thomassen · Kinuko Y. Craft · Micha Lobi · Michael Hiep · Olivier Zapelli · Patricia van Lubeck · Paul Jaarsma · Reinhard Schmid · Rene Zwaga · Shiori Matsumoto · Siegfried Zademack · Steven Kenny · Wim Kuenen · Zeljko Djurovic · Christophe Vacher · Sjaak Kieft · Helene Terlien · Ton Haring · Peter Gric · Sergei Aparin · Viktor Safonkin · Yu Sugawara · Iurie Matei · Boris Shapiro · Tomasz Kopera · Michael Maschka · Imke Meester
For more information about the exhibition and the new Dreamscapes book visit:
www.imaginaryrealism.com
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