This autumn the walls of the Espresso Bar have a totally new look with colourful pictographic wall paintings by artists Pam Emmerik and René Daniëls with the title ‘Duende Too’.

Pam Emmerik (1964-2015) was known for her colourful works in which textual elements allow the viewer access to the artist’s thoughts. She and Daniëls have transformed the Espresso Bar with wall drawings inspired by the Spanish concept ‘duende’. This word refers to a goblin-like mythological creature. But it also describes the robust alternative artistic spirit that holds an artist in its grip. Daniëls improvised on Emmerik’s designs by making direct interventions on the walls, as in ‘Guillotine’ in which the text tells a very different story to the image. Emmerik said about the work in the Espresso Bar: ‘For me the paintings represent, above all, that life is often hard, but it is certainly colourful. Life can take strange turns, so that you have to steer carefully or you’ll smash into a wall!’ At the beginning of last July Pam Emmerik suddenly past away. To honor Pam Emmerik and her oeuvre the exhibition in the Espresso bar is extended till the end of 2017

Pam Emmerik also wrote novels, short stories, essays and poems. In the 1980s she studied painting at Ateliers ’63, where René Daniëls was teaching. In that period Daniëls made colourful figurative paintings that connect the rich history of the visual arts with literature and everyday life. Ambiguity and multiple meanings play an important role in his work.

His oeuvre continues to exert a strong influence on younger artists and is represented in museum collections in the Netherlands and abroad. Following a brain haemorrhage in the late 1980s, he was unable to paint for many years but has recently taken up his brushes again. Because of this experience both artists have a direct connection with the term ‘duende’. The artist who experiences ‘duende’ is aware of his or her mortality, challenging them to make unforgettable art that is attractive yet dangerous.