Gabriel Lester
Encyclopedia
Gabriel Lester is a visual artist, and film director
living and working in the Benelux
. His practice encompasses music
, cinema
, spatial installation, performance art
, sculpture
, architecture
, photography
, and prose
.
on 6 February 1972. Son of Mark Dunning Lester (New York
, USA 1947) and Frederika Rolande Wilhelmina Erwteman (Bruxelles, Belgium
1944 † Groningen , Netherlands
2006). Lester grew up in a cooperative commune named ‘Impuls’ in the small village of Pieterburen, in the province of Groningen (the Netherlands).
before moving into digital samplers and sequencers. In 1986 he formed the group ‘Definitely Def’ with Andy Godderis. In 1989, Eugen Walker joined the group to become ‘Utile Connection’ (or U.C.). U.C. would record several tracks and perform in the Netherlands and Germany.
and Hip Hop musicians. This resulted in weekly concerts, performances and several album and CD recordings. In that same year Lester attended a weekend course that was dubbed the pre-cinema school.
In 1994 Lester moved to the city of Breda
(the Netherlands), where he attended a course of audiovisual arts at the Sint Joost art academy. After successfully completing the first year, Lester decided to travel instead of spending more time at the academy. That summer he traveled by bus to Georgia
’s capital Tbilisi
, where he spent a number of months researching and writing his first feature length screenplay titled ‘Travel without a Course’. Upon his return from Georgia, Lester entered a course in experimental cinema at the Sint-Lukas Hogeschool in Bruxelles (Belgium). Again he concluded the first year of a four-year course, without the inclination to continue.
Lester returned to Amsterdam in 1995 and worked as a director, assistant director and editor of video-clips and commercials for the film production company Filmhouse. In 1996 he was invited by Carlos Amorales
, with whom he had previously worked on a short film, to collaborate in his Amorales art and performance project; a collaboration that lasted for two and a half years. This project introduced Lester to the Rijksakademie
in Amsterdam, to which he applied and was admitted in 1998. Before starting at the Rijksakademie, Lester traveled to Iceland
, where he stayed five months farming and writing a collection of short stories. Upon his return to Amsterdam Lester self-published a selection of the stories in a book called “Over and Done With”.
Gallery Fons Welters based in Amsterdam, represent Gabriel Lester in subsequently art and cinema.
Lester frequently collaborates with Raimundas Malasdauskas, Aaron Schuster, Onco Tattje, Job Chajes and Arnaud Hendrickx. Other collaborators include: Jennifer Tee, Freek Wambacq, Thomas Bakker, Herwig Weiser.
Lester’s work is part of several public and private collections a.o. Stedelijk Museum
, Amsterdam and Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
, Rotterdam.
Publications on the work of Gabriel Lester include: ‘How to Act’ (a monograph, published by Veenman publishers), ‘Gabriel Lester’s Elevating the Witte de With’ (a catalogue, published by Paperkunsthalle ), ‘Its Hard to get Trough to You’ and ‘62 Gasoline Stations’ (both by self published).
Works in public space, commissions and competitions include a light art façade in the Witte de Withstraat and the Funenpark in Amsterdam, periscope sculptures in The Hague
and Enschede
(the Netherlands) and Anyang, Gyeonggi (S-Korea), G.O.D. together with URA architects in Brussels (Belgium) and a post office together with Jennifer Tee in Culemborg (The Netherlands).
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
living and working in the Benelux
Benelux
The Benelux is an economic union in Western Europe comprising three neighbouring countries, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. These countries are located in northwestern Europe between France and Germany...
. His practice encompasses music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
, cinema
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, spatial installation, performance art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
, sculpture
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
, architecture
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
, photography
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
, and prose
Prose
Prose is the most typical form of written language, applying ordinary grammatical structure and natural flow of speech rather than rhythmic structure...
.
Family and Early Life
Gabriel Lester was born in AmsterdamAmsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
on 6 February 1972. Son of Mark Dunning Lester (New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, USA 1947) and Frederika Rolande Wilhelmina Erwteman (Bruxelles, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
1944 † Groningen , Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
2006). Lester grew up in a cooperative commune named ‘Impuls’ in the small village of Pieterburen, in the province of Groningen (the Netherlands).
Early Career in Music
In 1984 he moved to the province’s capital; the city of Groningen. It was around this time that Lester became interested in early street and hip-hop culture. He began graffiti writing under the ‘tag name’ Catch. Lester later produce rap music using so called tape loops, cassette decks and turntablesTurntablism
Turntablism is the art of manipulating sounds and creating music using phonograph turntables and a DJ mixer.The word 'turntablist' was coined in 1995 by DJ Babu to describe the difference between a DJ who just plays records, and one who performs by touching and moving the records, stylus and mixer...
before moving into digital samplers and sequencers. In 1986 he formed the group ‘Definitely Def’ with Andy Godderis. In 1989, Eugen Walker joined the group to become ‘Utile Connection’ (or U.C.). U.C. would record several tracks and perform in the Netherlands and Germany.
Education and early career in cinema
In 1991 Lester moved to Amsterdam, where he frequently performed freestyle spoken-word and entertained crowds together with various jazzJazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and Hip Hop musicians. This resulted in weekly concerts, performances and several album and CD recordings. In that same year Lester attended a weekend course that was dubbed the pre-cinema school.
In 1994 Lester moved to the city of Breda
Breda
Breda is a municipality and a city in the southern part of the Netherlands. The name Breda derived from brede Aa and refers to the confluence of the rivers Mark and Aa. As a fortified city, the city was of strategic military and political significance...
(the Netherlands), where he attended a course of audiovisual arts at the Sint Joost art academy. After successfully completing the first year, Lester decided to travel instead of spending more time at the academy. That summer he traveled by bus to Georgia
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
’s capital Tbilisi
Tbilisi
Tbilisi is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Mt'k'vari River. The name is derived from an early Georgian form T'pilisi and it was officially known as Tiflis until 1936...
, where he spent a number of months researching and writing his first feature length screenplay titled ‘Travel without a Course’. Upon his return from Georgia, Lester entered a course in experimental cinema at the Sint-Lukas Hogeschool in Bruxelles (Belgium). Again he concluded the first year of a four-year course, without the inclination to continue.
Lester returned to Amsterdam in 1995 and worked as a director, assistant director and editor of video-clips and commercials for the film production company Filmhouse. In 1996 he was invited by Carlos Amorales
Carlos Amorales
-Biography:Amorales studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam from 1992 to 1996.-Works:Amorales works in a variety of media, including video animation, painting, drawing, sculpture, and performance...
, with whom he had previously worked on a short film, to collaborate in his Amorales art and performance project; a collaboration that lasted for two and a half years. This project introduced Lester to the Rijksakademie
Rijksakademie
The Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten is a two-year residency for visual artists, based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.Funded by the Dutch government, residents are granted a stipend and are allotted a personal studio in the former military barracks building in which the Rijksakademie is housed...
in Amsterdam, to which he applied and was admitted in 1998. Before starting at the Rijksakademie, Lester traveled to Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
, where he stayed five months farming and writing a collection of short stories. Upon his return to Amsterdam Lester self-published a selection of the stories in a book called “Over and Done With”.
Early Artistic Practice
In January 1999 Gabriel Lester started a two-year residency at the Rijksakademie, with the intention to do further research into cinema and produce some short films. However, in April of that year, shortly after an internal open-studios, Lester decide to avoid making film-art or video-art and rather create cinematic experiences in a three dimensional fine arts practice. Later that year, at the public open-studios, he showed his first artwork, entitled “How to Act”, a light sequence mimicking the light televisions shed pared with a collection of generic movie soundtracks. Lester joined the Fons Welters Gallery that same year and concluded the Rijksakademie in 2000. At the end of 2000 Lester moved back to Brussels, where he was based until 2008.Current Artistic Practice
In the years following the Rijksakademie and his move back to Brussels, Lester initially focused his practice on spatial installations, sculpture and occasional experimental film and video for publications, exhibitions and/or commissions. Later he would direct part of his attention back to writing, film directing and performing. In recent years Lester has been known to exhibit, install, publish short prose, occasionally curate and co-curate, teach and advice at art academies,post graduate courses, and direct narrative cinema.Residencies, Connections, Collections, Publications and Commissions.
- 2005-2006 ISCP, New York, USA
- 2003-2004 IASPIS, Stockholm, Sweden
- 1999-2000 Rijksakademie van Beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam
- 1995-1996 Hogeschool Sint Lukas, Brussels - Experimental Film
- 1994-1995 St. Joost Akademie voor Kunst en Vormgeving, Breda - Audio Visual
Gallery Fons Welters based in Amsterdam, represent Gabriel Lester in subsequently art and cinema.
Lester frequently collaborates with Raimundas Malasdauskas, Aaron Schuster, Onco Tattje, Job Chajes and Arnaud Hendrickx. Other collaborators include: Jennifer Tee, Freek Wambacq, Thomas Bakker, Herwig Weiser.
Lester’s work is part of several public and private collections a.o. Stedelijk Museum
Stedelijk Museum
Founded in 1874, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam is a museum for classic modern and contemporary art in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. It has been housed on the Paulus Potterstraat, next to Museum Square Museumplein and to the Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum and the Concertgebouw, in Amsterdam Zuid...
, Amsterdam and Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
The Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen is the main art museum in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The museum began in 1847 with the collection of Frans Jacob Otto Boijmans . Much of the museum's original collection was destroyed in a disastrous 1864 fire...
, Rotterdam.
Publications on the work of Gabriel Lester include: ‘How to Act’ (a monograph, published by Veenman publishers), ‘Gabriel Lester’s Elevating the Witte de With’ (a catalogue, published by Paperkunsthalle ), ‘Its Hard to get Trough to You’ and ‘62 Gasoline Stations’ (both by self published).
Works in public space, commissions and competitions include a light art façade in the Witte de Withstraat and the Funenpark in Amsterdam, periscope sculptures in The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
and Enschede
Enschede
Enschede , also known as Eanske in the local dialect of Twents, is a municipality and a city in the eastern Netherlands in the province of Overijssel and in the Twente region...
(the Netherlands) and Anyang, Gyeonggi (S-Korea), G.O.D. together with URA architects in Brussels (Belgium) and a post office together with Jennifer Tee in Culemborg (The Netherlands).
Selected exhibitions
- Deep Screen, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (NL)http://www.stedelijk.nl/oc2/page.asp?PageID=1796
- BIG BANG, Bloomberg Space, LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
(UK) - SEEN Boniers Konsthal, StockholmStockholmStockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
(S) http://www.bonnierskonsthall.se/en/Exhibitions/Exhibitions/Sneak-launch-1-Lester/ - Highlight (plan B) NICC, Free Space, PSK, Brussels (B)
- Beautiful Gamble, IASPIS, Stockholm (S)
- Cut to the Chase, Gemeentemuseum Den HaagGemeentemuseum Den HaagThe Municipal Museum is an art museum, located in The Hague, Netherlands.The museum was built by the Dutch architect H.P. Berlage. It is renowned for its large Mondrian collection, the largest in the world...
(NL) - The Gift of Gab, Platform Garanti Contemporary Art CenterPlatform Garanti Contemporary Art CenterThe contemporary art institution Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center opened in 2001 and was located on the pedestrian Istiklal Avenue in Istanbul, Turkey...
, IstanbulIstanbulIstanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
(TUR) - CIS, Kadist Art Foundation, Cine 13 ParisParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
(F) - The Prompt, Performa 09 Biennial New YorkNew YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
(USA) - Slow Movement, Kunsthalle BernKunsthalle BernThe Kunsthalle Bern is a Kunsthalle on the Helvetiaplatz in Berne, Switzerland.It was built in 1917–1918 by the Kunsthalle Bern Association and opened on October 5, 1918. Since then, it has been the site of numerous expositions of contemporary art...
(CH)http://www.kunsthalle-bern.ch/en/agenda/exhibition.php?exhibition=83 - Made Up, Liverpool BiennialLiverpool BiennialLiverpool Biennial is a British international festival of contemporary art held in Liverpool. The festival comprises the International Exhibition, the John Moores Painting Prize, the Bloomberg New Contemporaries Exhibition and the Independents Biennial....
(UK) - Prix Jeune Peinture Belge, Palais des Beaux-Art/Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels (B)
- Black Market World, Baltic Triennale, VilniusVilniusVilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...
/London (LIT/UK) - More Than This!, GothenburgGothenburgGothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 519,399, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 937,015 inhabitants in the metropolitan area...
Biennale (S) - Rio de JaneiroRio de JaneiroRio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
Film festival Capacete, Rio de Janeiro (BR) - Puerto RicoPuerto RicoPuerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
04 Biennale Proyectos, Puerto Rico (USA) - Promotion, Z33, HasseltHasseltHasselt is a Belgian city and municipality, and capital of the Flemish province of Limburg...
(B) http://www.z33.be/projecten/promotion - Suspension of Disbelief 12 februari t/m 8 mei 2011 in Museum Boijmans Van BeuningenMuseum Boijmans Van BeuningenThe Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen is the main art museum in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The museum began in 1847 with the collection of Frans Jacob Otto Boijmans . Much of the museum's original collection was destroyed in a disastrous 1864 fire...
in Rotterdam (NL)http://www.boijmans.nl/nl/7/kalender/calendaritem/625/gabriel-lester
Articles
- http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/gabriel_lester/
- http://www.tokyoartbeat.com/tablog/entries.en/2006/10/interview_with_gabriel_lester.html
- http://www.trouwamsterdam.nl/2010/12/8-dec-beamclub-16-gabriel-lester/
- http://www.boijmans.nl/en/7/calendar-exhibitions/calendaritem/625/gabriel-lester
External links
- Gabriel Lester's Home Page.http://gabriellester.com/cms/chronicle/
- Gabriel Lester's Artist Page At Fons Welters Gallery, Amsterdam http://www.fonswelters.nl/artists/artist.php?id_contact=698