Netherlandish Jan Maarten Voskuil

There are thousands of contemporary artists across the globe, but none are as influential as Jan Maarten Voskuil. Born in Arnhem in 1964, he graduated from the Rijks University of Groningen in the Netherlands and went on to study at the prestigious Ateliers Arnhem, which – at the time – was the postgraduate program of the Art Academy of Arnhem.

Since then, his work has been featured in a wide variety of exhibits, including at the Peter Blake Gallery in Laguna Beach, the Dr. J Art Projects in Berlin, the Gallery Rob de Vries in Haarlem, and the Pentimenti Gallery in Philadelphia.

Many regard Voskuil as a contemporary artist; however, he considers himself more like a “spatial painter,” due to his use of paint, stretchers, and linen in his work. The combination of these three materials results in beautiful contemporary art installations that are simultaneously both sculpture and architecture.

“Voskuil’s paintings are constructed from multiple panels of different shapes and dimensions unified into a whole,” reads an article from the website Dutch Culture USA. “His frames are always three-dimensional and his surfaces are never quite flat. The individual components of the works are some assortment of convex, concave, beveled, and arched, with the edges of the works lifting up, down, and away from the wall.”

It added, “Despite the many disparate elements, the individual parts of the paintings come to fit together in seemingly perfect congruity. As such, his multipart works require an exacting process of preliminary design that is then followed from building the frame to finalizing the complete work.”

While Voskuil is best known for his incredibly vast portfolio of contemporary art installations, his most notable works include “Broken Sea Blue (2015),” “Modern Times are Fading Away (2019),” and “Roundtrip Dirty Pink (2020).” Most of these have fetched thousands of dollars from galleries and private collectors alike.

Besides the eye-catching beauty of his 3D Wall Art, many are also fascinated by how Voskuil is able to manipulate unorthodox materials. He makes it seem effortless, even though it’s far from that.

“[The] most challenging is to get rid of the structure of the linen,” said Voskuil. “This requires a lot of layers of primer and sanding. As industrial as it looks, it actually intensifies the craft. Everything I aimed for in my work, so far, comes together in the spraying; from the initial wish to avoid the handwriting and individualism of postmodernism to the merging of design, painting, and space.”

Because of this process, most – if not, all – of Voskuil’s projects are time-consuming and strenuous. He embraces this, though.

“If there are no challenges, there is no fun,” explained Voskuil. “The whole idea of being able to continue an artistic production is being able to find challenges. If there is no problem, you have to create one. The magnitude of it doesn’t matter, it’s just about locating and resolving it.”

The contemporary art installations that Voskuil creates are breathtaking in their subtle elegance. For some, it’s his use of unorthodox materials that make them so eye-catching. Others, however, believe that their uniqueness is rooted in the mathematical principles that Voskuil uses to bring his visions to life.

Utilizing these geometrical concepts, he distorts the rigid forms of circles and rectangles, stretching them out on monochromatic canvases before incorporating vibrant colors and other textures.

“Because of the meticulous nature of his paintings’ designs, Voskuil’s practice is inevitably rooted in geometry, but the artist insists on limiting the role of mathematics in the works to a practical necessity,” reads a press release from Artnet. “Voskuil’s shining distinction is his ability to bring playfulness to his monochromes. For a process as demanding as his, the works somehow manage to put forth a carefree presence.”

The press release continues, “His precise approach ultimately embraces the beauty of irregularity.”

Now based in Haarlem, Voskuil continues to meticulously create contemporary art installations and abstract paintings-cum-sculptures whose unique forms challenge the audience. Many have called them “shape-shifters” because of how they appear to either stretch, collapse in on themselves, or peel off of the wall.

It’s not every day that you come across an artist like Jan Maarten Voskuil, who uses unorthodox materials and mathematical principles to create playful masterpieces that seem to defy gravity. This is perhaps the reason why his work has entranced the art world.

Source: Jan Maarten Voskuil

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