Recommended by Rik Reinking
Rik Reinking opened WAI Galleries in the Woods Art Institute as a space for cultural interaction to give rise to new creative possibilities. Located in a historical and listed park in the Sachsenwald Forest on the edge of Hamburg, it is designed as a living complement to nature as well as to display his award-winning private collection. He was honoured by the German Government in 2006 for being “a collector with an extraordinary eye for quality who owns one of the most exciting collections of young contemporary art in Europe”.
Reinking is a German art collector, art dealer, and curator, embracing all these facets to inform his next steps. In 2014, he made an appearance on the Apollo Magazine 40 under 40 list for his work in advancing today's art world.
His collection boasts works by Wim Delvoye, Alicja Kwade, Jan Fabre, and Miroslaw Balka, with a focus on themes of life and death, and everything in the middle.
For more information on the Woods Art Institute click here.
Tim, 2006 by Win Delvoye. Essentially, a man with a tattoo on his back who sits for the duration of the exhibition in the gallery. Photo: Jesse Hunniford
What is your favourite art space to visit? Somewhere you have been that had brought you joy.
I would say it is the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humblebaek near Copenhagen.
What have you seen in the past year which made you think you are looking at a new way of experiencing art? This can be an artwork, an exhibition, or a space.
TIM (Wim Delvoye, 2008) could be an artwork that goes into that direction. Showing his back tattoo at selected art spaces (sitting still) throughout special time periods, he advances to a ‘living art piece’. For me, an interesting way of communicating art.
Also, the performances by the Serbian artists Maria Stamenković Herranz and Marina Abramović. Both show special ways of transporting and understanding art, mostly dealing with human habits and limits including the human body itself.
What show, gallery, institution or museum have you visited that you thought was worth the travel?
Any. I never thought about, if it was or was not worth the travel when I go visiting a museum. I just go because I want to.
If time and budget were not an obstacle, where would you like to visit (or revisit) from the places listed on The Art Pilgrim?
Yorkshire Sculpture Park with its breath-taking environment and MONA when TIM is performing ;-))
Left: WAI Galleries, Ed and Nancy Kienholz. Right: WAI Galleries, Photo: Thomas Judisch Poseidon.
In your opinion, which city, other than London, Berlin or New York, has a really interesting and exciting art scene?
For Germany, it is Karlsruhe. Internationally, I go for São Paulo.
If the world were coming to an end, and there was space for only one museum collection on the spaceship, which collection would you nominate and why?
The Smithsonian, what else? Not only the art pieces, but all historical, cultural, and scientific records also make it so valuable (especially in outer space ;-).
However, it shouldn’t be something of our very own taste. Fair enough, even my answer is a little pretentious in the end.
