Born and raised in Curaçao, visual artist Gilleam Trapenberg (b. 1991) now lives and works in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Orbiting his homeland, his creative projects look closely at the fabric of Curaçao’s social landscape, probing at the island’s many paradoxes. He searches beneath the portrayals and tropes of Caribbean life that dominate (Western) media cycles, using the camera to create necessary counter-images.

Occasionally, though, Trapenberg is himself seduced by the allure of the exported picture-postcard; on European shores, nostalgia and longing take hold, perspectives drift, and memories of home are easily romanticised. For the artist, this experience of a perpetual limbo between two distinct places – connected by the fraught legacies of colonialism, enduring flows of goods and people, or even the mass tourism industry – is a growing focal point of his work.

A graduate of The Hague’s Royal Academy of Art, Trapenberg first moved to the Netherlands at 19 years old. In the years since, his works have been exhibited at institutions such as Foam Photography Museum and Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, whilst his first photobook – Big Papi – was published in 2017. He was the 2020 recipient of Foam’s Florentine Riem Vis grant, and is one of five shortlisted artists for the Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize 2023. The shortlisted works will soon be exhibited at London’s National Portrait Gallery.

Education

2017 BA Photography at KABK, The Hague

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2023 Galerie Ron Mandos, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Currents
Galeria Taler Goria, Havana, Cuba
Baken Schiermonnikoog IV, Hi-Lo, Nos Pais by Gilleam Trapenberg
2021 Foam Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Unbé t’aweró

Selected Group Exhibitions

2023 National Portrait Gallery, London, England, Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize
Fotomuseum Den Haag, The Netherlands, School. Verliefd, Verveeld, Verslapen Stedelijk
Museum Schiedam, The Netherlands, Frida Hunziker - Een reis naar Curaçao
Chengdu Fusun Art Center, Chengdu, China, NL Imagined
Three Shadows Photography Center, Xiamen, China, NL Imagined
Three Shadows Photography Center, Beijing, China, NL Imagined
2022 Shanghai Center of Photography, Shanghai, China, NL Imagined
Unfair 2022, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2021 UNSEEN 2021, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Art Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, Prospects & Concepts
Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam, The Netherlands,
Gallery of Honour of Dutch Photography
Het Nationaal Archief, The Hague, The Netherlands, Curacao / Korsou
2020 Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands,
The Presence of Absence, Municipal Art Acquisitions
UNFAIR 2020, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2017 Paris College of Art, Paris, France, Blurring The Lines
FOTODOK. Utrecht, The Netherlands, Beyond Us and Them
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, VOV
Istanbul Photobook Festival, Istanbul, Turkey, My Name In 100 Colophons
LhGWR, Den Haag, The Netherlands, My Name In 100 Colophons

Artist Talks, Guest Lectures & interviews

2023 Three Shadows Photography Center, Xiamen, China
Eregallerij Plus #27 Gilleam Trapenberg
2021 Fuse x Foam Guest Lecture
Kunst is Lang aflevering 187
Fotoclub des Vaderlands - Aflevering 1: Esthetiek
2017 Artist Talk Pakhuis de Zwijger

Awards

2023 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize
2021 Winner Florentine Riem Vis Stipendium
2018 Lensculture Emerging Talent Award

Collections

Mondriaan Fonds, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, Het Nederlands Fotomuseum, De Nederlandsche Bank, Kunstcollectie Rijksoverheid, Various private collections.

Commercial portfolio available on request

© Gilleam Trapenberg 2017–2023
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