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Jaap de Ruig
Solo Exhibition at RAM or Art Fair:
Year Title  
2007 Spliid* versus Spliid
2006 Installation
Group Exhibition or Art Fair:
Year Title
2017 "Up Memory Lane"
2008 Art Amsterdam
Books:
Year Title
2005 THE POWER OF IMPERFECTION
2002 beeldend werk/visual art 2000-2001 #4
2000 beeldend werk/visual art 1999-2000 #3
1998 beeldend werk/visual art 1997-1998 #2
1994 Kadavers En ze leefde nog
 
 
Sunday October 28th 2007 is the first day of the exhibition SPLIID VERSUS SPLIID. Location: RAM in Rotterdam. Artist: Jaap de Ruig. For this venue he has created seven monumental video installations in which he does not go easy on himself. Using mainly animals to represent his themes in earlier work, he now uses his own body.

Jaap de Ruig, born out of wedlock in 1957, his mother Dutch, his father Danish, hardly ever sees his father. His grandfather (Hakon Spliid, 1893 – 1959), renowned artist and illustrator in Denmark, is his role model. His black and white drawings of old buildings are found in many publications.
Thirty-four years old, Jaap discovers he carries the wrong surname since his father acknowledged him at birth. His name should be: Jaap Spliid.

In SPLIID VERSUS SPLIID Jaap de Ruig struggles with his Danish heritage. In 2000 his father commits suicide. His grandfather's drawings are considered lost. That's the reason why one space in RAM has been allocated to contain Hakon Spliid's drawings, re-created by Jaap de Ruig, contrasting with the seven video-installations.
In Split (a translation of the name Spliid) he lifts his own body off the ground, drops it hard and then lies down. The fallen Jaap de Ruig gets up in the meantime, steps over his alter ego, picks him up and drops him once again.

The installations can be enjoyed out of context since the themes are universal.

After the première in RAM, the exhibition will tour Europe as did The power of Imperfection, Jaap de Ruig's last solo exhibition. In May 2007 Jaap de Ruig finds himself number forty-six in the Top 100 of contemporary artists in the Netherlands (according to the periodical Kunstbeeld)
 
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