These hands think about you all is part of visual artist Ana Navas’ residency at HKU’s Fine Art department. For this exhibition she invited 22 third- and fourth-year students she met during her studio visits, to contribute a work.

How to organize an exhibition when the subjects and media of these young artists are so different from each other? As a starting point Navas chose what she considers common to all art practices: sincerity. The exhibition deliberately presents works of very diverse nature, but the core of the show does not lie solely in these pieces, but in offering the visitor an insight into the inspirations underlying each practice. For Navas, art is a dialogue with the other, one that is not limited to the established audience, but rather generates an echo in a broader field. To contribute to this for These hands think about you all, Navas asked the students and herself to write a letter to someone or something essential to the work: an image, a memory, an experience, a person, an object that they often think of while making. These letters are an integral part of the presentation, forming a connecting element that provides a voice to extremely relevant but often overshadowed aspects of each practice.

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Combining multiple media the work of Ana Navas (Quito 1984) mainly deals with processes such as translation, assimilation and appropriation. In 2011 she received a masters’ degree from the Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe. Between 2012 and 2014 she was a resident at De Ateliers in Amsterdam, after which she worked in residencies in France, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia and the Netherlands. Her work has been widely exhibited in Latin America and Europe.

AIR Pastoe is a unique artist residency made possible by the generous support of the Keep an Eye Foundation. Since 2021, each year an artist is invited to use a studio at HKU’s location Pastoe Fabriek, for at least three days a week, amid the work spaces of the HKU Fine Art students. During the residency, the artist works on the further development of their own work, engages students, and shares their experiences regarding their artistic career.

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Soete Boon, Katharina Busl, Mara Calvo Torrico, Anthony Chiou, Puck Dekker, Renske de Jong, Lina de Koning, Esmay van Loenen, Onno Meeuwsen, Pauline Meijer, Ana Navas, Ege Özer, Marta Ramirez Angulo, Rayn, Sam Reekers, Loes van Roozendaal, Nynke Sansom, Donna Schilder, Louise Smit, Pargol Tavakoli Shirazi, Julien Vogel, Junhao Xiang, Yingtong Zhou

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Exhibition
18.05 – 02.06.24
Wed. – Sun. 13:00 – 18:00h.

Opening
Friday 17.05, 17:00 h.