KOEN VAN DEN BROEK

The apparent simplicity of these quasi-schematic representations allows the artist to evoke the urban environment through lines and colours like those of the black tar strips that have long fascinated him for their calligraphic qualities. In order to explore the details of a cracked surface in the pavement or the marks left by the tires of a vehicle, his paintings operate by zooming in on their subjects. It is this very search for a subject of representation that eventually leads the artist on a journey closer to abstraction.

In his new work, Van den Broek moves away from Matisse like lines and colours to use mixed techniques that bring the materiality of his painting closer to that of grainy asphalt. The texture becomes part of the image and voids are treated like spaces. The cracks seem to hover above the surface of the road becoming autonomous as a kind of lyric network conflicting with the painted surface below. This feeling is further reinforced through the subtle play of conjured colours and the flattening of perspectives that brings forth an illusion of movement and unlimited depth.