Rotterdam is not the capital of the Netherlands, but is for sure the capital of art. The city has so much to offer when it comes to art and design, mainly due to its picturesque modern architecture and museums.

IamExpat has been invited to the Press Conference and Press Preview of Art Rotterdam 2012, the international fair "that keeps you up-to-date about the latest developments in contemporary art and where you can discover fresh talent," and we were quite happy to take a peek at the latest European artworks.

This year's edition presents many galleries from abroad, and 15 in total whithin the New Art Section, allowing these "young galleries to present an up-and-coming artist, against a considerable discount fare."

Belgium represents a big part of these galleries, among which you can find D + T Project and one of their artists, Zachary Formwalt, who has won the Illy Prize (one of the sponsors) for his striking - nearly touchable - 3D photographs of books "Economic History at the Antiquarian."

Visitors have the chance to admire many beautiful photographs, paintings, sculptures as well as drawings of artists such as David Haines (Upstream Gallery), who communicates a dirty but funny feel of life scenes and weird behaviours of English middle class kids, Eva Kotatkova (hunt kastner, Prague), and Terry Rodgers.

From graffiti to human-size cigarettes packs' covers with messages: "Samen roken is liefde delen" (Smoking together is sharing love) and "Roken is een filosofie" (Smoking is a philosophy) (Galerie Delta), Art Rotterdam has something for everyone. A few other themes are somewhat more conceptual: blank and empty spaces like the "In praise of the shadow," with the "10m2 of space" (litterally 10m2 of space!) and "one tennis ball," with a tennis ball on the floor and a perfectly round shadow.

If you live in Amsterdam and cannot go to Rotterdam this weekend, you are highly advised to visit a few galleries such as Kahmann Galery, Vous Etes Ici and tegenboschvanvreden.

Also don't miss OBJECT Rotterdam, the "place where the cutting edge between design, crafts, fashion, architecture and art becomes evident and a must see for collectors, professionals and other design minded people." The international fair for contemporary design runs simultaneously with Art Rotterdam in the opposite Las Palmas building.

Finally, a pop-up exhibition of 27 artists will take place at Boompjes 60-68. A significant percentage of the proceeds will go to the MK Award. Note that MK gallery owners Emmo Grofsmid and Karmin Kartowikromo passed away last June.


› Learn more about Art Rotterdam 2012