african art in the DR

we went over to Alex & Francesca's house last night for a BBQ. Francesca is in the picture with V. they are colleagues of ours at C21, both are Dutch, and have 2 young boys, Francesco and Daniel, who of course have lots of energy. in and out of the pool they went, with constant (nice) prodding for us to join them in there or even better to play soccer with them. last time we were at their house i played soccer with them and had lots of fun but just wasn't up for sweating that much this time. they were disappointed, i know, but i'll have to make it up to them next time. here they are - boys being boys....


Alex used to have a shop in Amsterdam that sold African art - all sorts of masks and wooden and bronze statues and artifacts. Alex and Francesca shipped all their personal stuff here when they moved here about 4 years ago, including tons of boxes filled with what he kept from his store. his initial start in that business came when he bought out the inventory of a shop in Amsterdam that sold Indian art. from there he expanded to African art which he would get from a market in Utrecht where you could buy that type of art. as his shop grew in popularity, Africans would come to his shop with art to sell. his shop was located in the gallery area of Amsterdam and so after the Africans had made their selling rounds to the galleries, they would end up at his shop. by then, they were ready to just sell their remaining stuff, so it he seems that he was then in a great negotiating position.

here's a shot of Alex in one of the rooms in his house that are filled with the art.

the masks and statues are all over the house - on the walls, adorning countertops, and in custom made shelfs that were made to display the art. here's a shot of Alex with one of the masks on and you can see some of the masks on the walls in the background.