After 15 years of living and working on our beautiful island, Carlos Blaaker is packing his bags together with his neeltje and they are setting their sails to explore new adventures.
On Friday, April 5, 2024, at 7 pm we will open an exquisite retrospective exhibition featuring some of Carlos’ most exclusive works of art he has created over the years.
Carlos Blaaker
Carlos Blaaker studied at the New School for Visual Arts and the Academy for Higher Art and Culture in Paramaribo, Suriname and he later studied at The Art Students League of New York and the Print Making Workshop led by Bob Blackburn. A few years after returning to Suriname, he left for Rotterdam, the Netherlands, where he lived, worked, and had a gallery for 19 years.
In 2009, Carlos moved to Curaçao where he focused on making sculptures in bronze, polyurethane, steel, polyester, and wood.
“I want to bring painting and sculpting together in order for a painting to also become a three-dimensional object and vice versa. These are attempts to remove the barrier between sculpture and painting and elevate the images.”
Carlos tells a story with his art and often shows ordinary people who live in his community.
Blaaker’s muses are the underprivileged people in his neighborhood that he sees around him every day: Immigrants, the homeless, undocumented immigrants, and other disadvantaged people. Recognizable types that you could encounter on the street anywhere in the world. At first glance, the model appears literally depicted, but beneath the realistic surface of style lays a story through the context in which they are placed.
This transcends literalness and gives the works a certain layeredness from which they derive their meaning. However, the interpretation of the artwork is up to the viewer.
“I am a storyteller in my work,” the artist explains.
Through his art, Carlos makes visible the ‘invisibles’ at the bottom of society and he does not shy away from criticism.
You are cordially invited to join us on this very special occasion where we will celebrate and say ‘te aworo’ to both Carlos and neeltje.
Carlos, neeltje and The Curaçao Museum await your visit