Piet Zwaanswijk: ‘Primates occupy Bern’
A collection of monkeys in all shapes and sizes
2nd of October 2021 – 3rd of March 2022 at Café Bern (extended during lockdown)
From the 3rd of October until the 2nd of December, 2021 Piet Zwaanswijk (1947) is exhibiting a selection of his work at Café Bern. All-embracing theme of the work shown in Bern: a collection of monkeys in all shapes and sizes.
Please feel free to drop by. From 4:00-6:00 p.m. you can come and see the exhibition at your ease. Or late at night, after 11:00 p.m., when the rather busy dinner time has finished and a lovely relaxed “after hours” atmosphere has descended on Café Bern.
Below you can already have a preview of some of the works exhibited at Café Bern.
Piet Zwaanswijk
Haarlem, 1947
Piet Zwaanswijk is an autodidact and has been an artist since 1967. It would be hard to categorize his work as part of a movement or school. To him the self-chosen “Quasirealism” comes closest to characterize his work. The wide range of images, expressions, material use and techniques, mixed and interchanged all the time, all contribute to a unique image of Zwaanswijk.
As varied as his palette is his choice of subjects: images from newspapers or from the TV news, social injustice, war, terrorism, suicide, eroticism as well as humour, glamour, music or the seamy side of life.
Other sources of inspiration are his long stays in Indonesia, as well as art history. In short, life as it presents itself to Zwaanswijk: from understated to exuberant, from absurdistic to realistic, from abstract to figurative. Fragmentary connections that show multiple sides of subject and artist in all forms of expression. A major part of his work stems from passion and impulsiveness, to touch, to inspire, above all to amaze himself (and us). The work of Piet Zwaanswijk is similar to that of Martin Kippenberger (Germany) or Edwin Wurms (Austria): just as capricious and unimaginable, just as varied in its forms of expression.
For more information: www.pietzwaanswijk.nl
Gerrit Pasman: The landscape
The whole field of view
12 March – 22 April 2022 in Café Bern
From 12 March to 22 April 2022 Gerrit Pasman (Lochem, 1955) exhibits landscapes in casein tempera and oil paint in Café Bern. A large, monumental space, translated onto a relatively small surface, while the space experience remains intact.
Please feel free to drop by. From 4:00-6:00 p.m. you can come and see the exhibition at your ease. Or late at night, after 11:00 p.m., when the rather busy dinner time has finished and a lovely relaxed “after hours” atmosphere has descended on Café Bern.
Below you can already have a preview of some of the works exhibited at Café Bern.
Gerrit Pasman
Lochem, 1955
The landscape, drawn and painted according to the direct perception. The aim is to reflect what is seen, from eye angle to eye angle, i.e. the whole field of view.
Translating a large, monumental space onto a relatively small surface, where the experience of space remains intact; displaying atmosphere and sensation experienced, with attention to the (clouded) skies, without falling into a meteorological illustration and with understanding of high-voltage masts, etc., lending the work a contemporary character.

Voor meer info: www.gerritpasman.nl
©2022 by Café Bern