Ellen Bertrams

As Program Manager for Young Collectors Circle I put together programs about (collecting) contemporary art and I aim to let more people experience how beautiful and enriching art and creativity are in your daily environment.

After my studies Media & Culture I studied General Cultural Sciences with a specialization in art policy and management. My part-time job at the Cobra Museum of Modern Art brought me into contact with museum practice and contemporary art. It was there that my love for modern and contemporary art was really ignited. After graduating, I started working as a curator for the ING Collection. There I had the opportunity to acquire art all over the world, commission artists, set up offices and curate exhibitions. I also enjoyed advising clients on buying and selling and building a collection. I am still inspired every day by the world of ideas and the brainpower of artists. Art makes me look at the world and others with an open mind and helps me to stay curious and ask different questions.

Art

When I look at my own collection, I see many works with nature as the subject. For example in the photographs of Elspeth Diederix. But I also have more abstract work like my paintings by Ricardo van Eyk or Pedram Sazesh. I find Ricardo's work to have the perfect appearance of a super controlled roughness. Privately, I collect mostly works of art that deal with subjects I find important or that put me in a certain state of mind (tranquility or energy). I can't stop looking at the work of Anish Kapoor or Alicja Kwade. To me, those works radiate such power and truly transcend the mundane.

Tips for 2022

I am very curious about Radius in Delft, a center for contemporary art and ecology housed in an old water tower. The combination of contemporary art within a non-museum setting always appeals to me tremendously. I am also looking forward to the exhibition of the Icelandic multidisciplinary artist Ragnar Kjartansson at De Pont. This fall, Marres will host the exhibition Kolkata: Run in the Alley; an exhibition that shows a spectacular artistic portrait of the metropolis Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) in India.

Fun fact

I am a very lousy drawer myself. When my kids ask me to draw something they usually laugh at me. It is still on my list to join a good drawing course. I would like to be able to do this better.