Klaas Kloosterboer

Some recent solo exhibitions
Villa Romana, Florence 2010, 'Pulpmachineries'
Galerie Barbara Oberem, Bonn 2009, 'Löcher in der Zeit'
Galerie van Gelder, Amsterdam 2008, 'Partij – Wederpartij'
Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe 2003, 'Klaas Kloosterboer: Ballast'

Some recent group exhibitions
La Biennale di Venezia, Venice 2009, 'DROPSTUFF.org'
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam 2009, 'De Nieuwe Collectie'
Kunstfort Vijfhuizen, Vijfhuizen 2008, 'Poldergeist'
Center for Contemporary Non-objective Art, Brussel 2007, 'Een beetje wit'
Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam 2006, 'Façade'

Selected publications
Trennung, Bonn: Galerie Barbara Oberem 2008
My eyes keep me in trouble, Haarlem; Brussels: Nieuwe Vide; CCNOA 2007
Mark Kremer (ed.), Klaas Kloosterboer: shivering emotions and feverish feelings, Karlsruhe: Badischer Kunstverein 2003

Selected public and corporate collections
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, NL • Centraal Museum, Utrecht, NL • Stadsgalerij Heerlen, NL • Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, NL • KPMG Collectie, NL • TNT Post Kunstcollectie, NL

Klaas Kloosterboer's principle starting point is painting on canvas; the key concepts in his work are visual constructions (painterly concepts) and a material concreteness as a form of abstraction (the image does not refer to reality). He regards combining painting with industrial objects, such as plasterboard or cardboard boxes, as an interesting addition to the pure act of painting. In China Man (2002), for example, no paintbrush is involved. The piece is constructed from a length of linen and wooden crates, with some Chinese scribbles. The reference is to an abstract archetype of man. The hard transitions in the form of, for example, stitched dots with gloss paint or crumpled balls of linen attached to crates, are comparable with the approach that one sees in Hard Edge paintings. The high-pressure spray paintings seem to contradict the graphic severity that is constantly found in the work. It's not a question of the action itself, but what the action can bring about. His concrete approach, involving throwing paint, drawing lines and making balls, brings his work close to the artists of the Dutch Zero movement, who saw the works themselves as part of existing reality and not so much as a derivative of it, as with Ellsworth Kelly. Kloosterboer once said: 'Most of all I like to paint like a house painter'.

Klaas Kloosterboer was a student at the Rijksakademie in 1979-1983.