Collect 2012 – Galerie Rob Koudijs

La prima intervista con Rob Koudijs proprietario della omonima galleria di Amsterdam.
The first interview with Rob Koudijs of Galerie Rob Koudijs in Amsterdam.

TERHI TOLVANEN

On April the 1st your gallery celebrated its fifth anniversary. Young, but experienced… What do you consider to be the “highlights” of these past five years? And your projects for 2013?

The main highlight is the fact that the gallery has grown so quickly during those years! Many new clients found their way to the gallery and to contemporary jewellery, several became ardent collectors. Even though you hear many complaints that only the older (if not to say previous) generation is committed to this art form and that there are no new people willing to take an interest, I find that this is not true at all! The new lovers of art-jewellery even get younger and are as enthusiastic as ever before. I think this is the main objective a gallery should strive for: finding a new audience for their artists.

NHAT-VU DANG

Another very special feature of the past years, was that many renowned artists wanted to be represented by my gallery. Which of course felt like a great compliment; naturally it also means a big responsability to look after the interests of so many makers (one of the reasons why I am reluctant to add many more names to the gallery list).

BENEDIKT FISCHER

Talking about Collect 2012: who are the new entries to the gallery?

As I just indicated there are several well known artists I am very happy to be presenting now, like Ruudt Peters, Evert Nijland and Terhi Tolvanen. In addition to them I bring many exciting young makers, such as Alexander Blank (who won the Herbert Hofmann Prize in Munich this year), Stefan Heuser, Tobias Alm and Mi-Ah Rödiger. Two artist are entirely new to Collect: Benedikt Fischer and Nhat-Vu Dang. Both graduated from the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam and they make great work which will catch everybody’s eye!

ALEXANDER BLANK

How would you describe the typical collector who attends Collect? Do you have one or more artists in your gallery who are “best sellers” at Collect?

To me Collect is important to meet with international collectors: especially the jewellery lovers from the USA. Fortunately also the British public and museums are showing more and more interest and have started buying. There are no typical ‘bestsellers’: each year I select a different group of artist who I’ll be showing in order to have enough space and attention for each maker, so every year there are other high-lights, and since I only show unique pieces, you only get ‘unique’ sales, no best sellers…

EVERT NIJLAND

Last year, during our interview, we spoke about the worldwide economic crisis and its possible effects on the contemporary jewelry market. You were quite confident about the situation then. One year later what are your thoughts?

The last year has been very gratifying! People will always be interested in good art and contemporary jewellery is innovative and exciting. Even though I feel jewellery artsists deserve to earn a better living from their commitment to their craft, the jewellery prices are not as ‘hyped’ as in the fine arts, so clients can get really excellent pieces at reasonable prices.

RUUDT PETERS

Did you see any young artists at Schmuck 2012 in Munich that you would like to include in your gallery?

Like I just explained, I am not easily tempted to add new artists to the list, but the young Japanese Akihiro Ikeyama surprised me not only by showing up everywhere in Munich with his ‘exhibition-bicycle’, but also with the unusual quality of his work: I will be showing it in the FrontRoom of my gallery in July/August. And there are one or two others in the back of my head who I might approach…

STEFAN HEUSER