A Space Once Occupied, Now Empty: Marieken Cochius at the Holland Tunnel

When Dutch artist Paulien Lethen organized a one weekend exhibition in 1997 in her newly installed garden shed in Williamsburg, Brooklyn NY, she created a totally different way to experience art. The Holland Tunnel Gallery, the smallest gallery of New York rapidly gained international recognition in the art world and the instant success led to more shows and more Holland Tunnels, each with a totally different atmosphere. From September 16 until October 9, Marieken Cochius will present her first solo exhibition “A Space Once Occupied, Now Empty” at the Holland Tunnel Gallery. This show consists of drawings made with ink and pastel on paper made of bark. 

About the Exhibition

Marieken Cochius is interested in the tension between what is present and what is sensed, but cannot be touched. Her work refers to the chaos of the natural world where patterns are temporary, yet within this chaos networks and systems can be found if one knows where to look. This new body of work is called: A Space Once Occupied, Now Empty. It is an exploration of empty space imagined occupied by the absent in two ways. Half of the series is made on paper made of bark in its original brown color, the other half is made on bark paper that is faded and bleached. On the light bark paper Cochius explores the physical boundaries of the absent from the inside out, looking for the architecture.This has resulted in more geometric and crystalline shapes. The drawings made on dark colored bark paper are about looking for traces, a whiff, of what was left behind. Cochius says: “There is a futility in trying to remember a whole. But I am hoping to trigger that yearning. “

About Marieken Cochius

Marieken Cochius is a Dutch-born artist who has lived and worked in New York City since 1987, and in the Hudson Valley since 2013. Her work encompasses drawing, painting, and sculpture. She has exhibited nationally as well as in the Netherlands, Germany, and Japan. Cochius has had a solo show at Matteawan Gallery in Beacon, NY this year, and has participated in recent group exhibitions at Sideshow Gallery, Holland Tunnel, and A.I.R. Gallery, New York, NY; GCCA, Catskill, NY; Ube Gallery, Berkeley, CA; Space Create, Newburgh, NY; and Kentler International Drawing Center, Brooklyn, NY. She has been commissioned for a public sculpture by the village of Wappingers Falls, NY. She has participated in two residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT. Cochius’ work is in numerous private collections (The Kaplan Family Foundation) in the US and Europe. She studied art at the Art Academy St. Joost, Breda, Netherlands.