Bikkel is invited by The International Artists Group at the Spring edition of the Salon "Art Shopping" in Paris at the Carrousel du Louvre, an historical and cultural location, visited by millions of tourists. The entrance to the "Art Shopping" is the same of the Louvre Museum ticketing, that is accessible through a large glass structure shaped like a pyramid.
The event shall take place from the 4th to the 6th of June 2010. The opening night is scheduled on the 4th of June at 6 pm by invitation only. The event, which is at its 6th edition, confirms itself as one of the most important events in Contemporary European art.
Bikkel exhibit with two oilpaintings: Curacao Mother and Child.
This quality of the testimonial straight from the heart is particularly visible in her paintings. The represented scenes are always frontal – which means without complex spatial effects – and layered, as if three transparent paintings were combined together. She uses primary colors and applies her paint in a refined combination of stencil and free hand.
The frontality of the scenes fits particularly well with her wish to speak the plain truth and the nakedness, physically of emotionally, she shows without reservations. The human being or the question that she presents, makes out the first pictorial layer. Additionally, she likes to use ordered visual structures, like that of a chicken fence or tile floor. This second layer supports her paintings with a sense of unity and structure in a visual world dominated by atmosphere and feeling. The third layer is usually filled with symbolic images derived from her youth in Curaçao. They sometimes give the paintings a deceivingly light and playful tone. The uncomplicated charm that also Papiamentu possesses for western ears. She underscores that ‘cheerful’, exotic element by giving her works titles in Papiamentu.
Some paintings have the character of an emotional digestion or blur. The subject in question almost disappears in a glowing atmosphere of color and structure. These are the works where emotion is all important. Other works have a more symbolic, almost narrative character. The pictorial layers painted over each other without flowing into one another. Her message, born out of a shared fate and a genuine sense of shock, is central in these works.
Her works in glass are less complicated and show, above all, a lust for life. Their sumptuous forms and rich colors are remarkably un-Dutch and bear witness to the Caribbean background of the artist. They have a cheerful, sunny, and sensuous character about them. They show, furthermore, the sheer pleasure BIKKEL takes in the creative process that runs like a life string through her life. A vital creativity that softens hard feelings, heals wounds and invites the artist to encounter and process new people and materials in an artistic manner.”