Koen van den Broek

Belgian artist Koen Van den Broek is known for his paintings that depict pavements, curbs, and empty street corners created from photographs that he takes.

Biography of Koen van den Broek

Koen Van den Broek was born in 1973 in Bree, Belgium. His educational journey began with architecture and was followed by a pursuit of painting. He studied at the Royal Academy of Antwerp before continuing his studies at the Academy of Visual Arts in Breda.

Despite his focus on painting, the artist considers himself an architect. Throughout his student years and beyond, Van den Broek has been a frequent traveler, journeying across Europe, the USA, Mexico, and Japan, always with his camera in hand. His photographic endeavors have centered on capturing the architectural interventions of humanity upon the landscape.

Van den Broek's paintings have found their place in various public collections worldwide. These include the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) in Los Angeles, the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (SMAK) in Ghent, the Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen (M HKA) in Antwerp, the Busan Museum of Art in Busan, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco, the Astrup Fearnley Museet in Oslo, the Staatliche Kunsthalle in Karlsruhe, and the Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens in Deurle.

His art has also graced significant stages, including exhibitions at the Venice Biennale in both 2015 and 2017, White Cube in London, Kunstmuseum in Bonn, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp and Brussels, the Seoul Arts Centre in Seoul, Kunsthalle in Mannheim, the Royal Academy in London, MAS in Antwerp, and Kunsthal in Rotterdam.

Currently, the artist lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium.

Koen van den Broek's art style

Through his painterly investigations of urban details, such as cracks in the asphalt, Koen van den Broek develops an ambiguous realm of representation. Often using photographs as references, his paintings engage in close-up scrutiny of their subjects, gradually leading the artist toward abstraction.

His work shows traces of human presence: circus tents, highways, bridges, sewers, pipes, fragments of houses, or cars. The artist pursues anonymity, favoring the general over the specific. This connection with photography is integral to his work.

Van den Broek's art is characterized by playfulness, diversity, and duality. The contrast between rigid delineation and wild brushstrokes, depth and surface, all contribute to the uniqueness of his work. His paintings serve as anti-images and reactions against photographic recordings.