Where does the body end and the landscape begin? Amber Veel is fascinated by the skin. The boundary between being and environment. But how hard is that limit? In her work, Veel investigates the connection between the inner body and the outside world. To do this, she works with the material that forms that physical boundary: skin. She tan's leather using age-old techniques and with elements from the nearby natural environment. This work is tanned with seawater from Bergen aan Zee. By using different techniques and raw materials, she creates a landscape on the skin of an animal that was previously part of that same nature.
Text by: Eliane Odding

'Current-ly' was specially created for the exhibition 'In the back of the sea, hundred years of imagination of the landscape in and around Bergen' and will be on display at Museum Kranenburgh Bergen until May 2025.

The Exhibition 
Since the arrival of the first pioneers in Bergen at the beginning of the twentieth century, countless artists have been inspired by the landscape of polders, forests, dunes and sea. Their motivations to immortalize this landscape seem timeless: they are struck by its magical beauty and unique diversity. In the Back of the Sea shows this through work by almost forty artists, from 1900 to the present. At the same time, the exhibition is a journey through different artistic interpretations of the same landscape, with interesting encounters that transcend time and discipline. Art historian and guest curator Eliane Odding selected key works and unexpected pearls from the collection of Museum Kranenburgh, in addition to pieces from collections of museums, private individuals and artists. Below are also a number of new works that have not previously been shown in a museum.

Maria Barnas (NL, 1973) | Else Berg (PL, 1877-1942) | Eva Besnyö (HU, 1910- NL, 2003) | Gerrit van Blaaderen (NL, 1873-1935) | Kees Boendermaker (NL, 1904-1979) | Erwin Bowien (DE, 1899-1972) | Charlotte Caspers (BE, 1979) | Arnout Colnot (NL, 1887-1983) | Moritz Ebinger (CH, 1968) | Bernard Essers (ID, 1893- NL, 1945) | Edgar Fernhout (NL, 1914-1974) | Rachel Fernhout-Pellekaan (NL, 1905- FR, 1989) | Dirk Filarski (NL, 1885-1964) | Leo Gestel (NL, 1881-1941) | Johannes Graadt van Roggen (NL, 1867-1959) | Betty Hubers-Schleuffer (DE, 1907- NL, 1991) | Frans Huysmans (NL, 1885-1954) | Jan van Herwijnen (NL, 1889-1965) | Henri ten Holt (NL, 1884-1968) | Folkert de Jong (NL, 1972) | Germ de Jong (NL, 1886-1967) | Harrie Kuyten (NL, 1883-1952) | Thé Lau (NL, 1889-1959) | Adriaan Lubbers (NL, 1892- VS, 1954) | Carlijn Mens (NL, 1972) | Jaap Min (NL, 1914-1987) | Awoiska van der Molen (NL, 1972) | Jaap Mooy (NL, 1915-1987) | Dirck Nab (NL, 1940) | Pé Okx (NL, 1951) | Wim Schuhmacher (NL, 1894-1986) | Charley Toorop (NL, 1891-1955) | Amber Veel (NL, 1981) | Tjipke Visser (NL, 1876-1955) | herman de vries (NL, 1931) | Jaap Weijand (NL, 1886-1960) | Matthieu Wiegman (NL, 1886-1971) | Bastiaan Woudt (NL, 1987)