“The alluringly odd creatures inhabiting Studio Gallery’s main floor are made of such industrial materials as plaster and cement, yet they seem midway through an organic process of transformation. That’s partly because many of the sculptures in Trix Kuijper’s “The Art of the Improbable” resemble cocoons, albeit with protruding baby-doll-like heads. Another common attribute is a forehead that extends into a curved form that looks like a rhino horn. The Dutch-born Virginia artist’s creations suggest a collaboration between a toymaker and a gene-splicer.
Kuijper’s whimsical list of ingredients doesn’t list animal horns, but her concoctions do incorporate found objects. Many are battered or rusted metal whose well-worn look complements the simulated aging of the white surfaces to which they’re affixed. Springs serve as earrings, and heads are topped with red balls, an inverted funnel or yarn, and a pair of knitting needles. A tree sprouts from another cranium, echoing the surreal imagery of one of the artist’s three pictures on display in the gallery’s basement group show. Whether painting or sculpting, Kuijper depicts a world in impossible yet somehow believable flux.”
Trix Kuijper: The Art of the Improbable Through March 30 at Studio Gallery, 2108 R St. NW.
-Mark Jenkins, the Washington Post, March 2019
From Trix Kuijper’s The Art of the Improbable. Inquire.