Joris Kuipers

BIOGRAPHY

Face to face with an installation or wall relief by Joris Kuipers, you are about to enter a different dimension. One where the chaotic, random events of life have been captured and carefully rearranged to create an animated, lyrical object of beauty. Hand-drawn, laser-cut slices of imagination are assembled into jubilant abstract visions that effortlessly expand into the surrounding space. Constellations reminiscent of billowing clouds, minerals and flowers in bloom testify to the vitality of nature and our own capacity for joy.

From the first colorful impressions, Kuipers’ work unfolds into ever finer detail. The unique, vibrant surface of every individual element arrests the attention, makes you marvel at the subtle contrasts that accentuate the countless different hues in a bold but harmonious palette. Gold, fluorescent orange and burnt sienna, or infinite shades of pink, yellow, purple, orange and red. Gradients and organic patterns – cellular structures perhaps, molds, rusts, raindrops — seem to flow autonomously and freely through all the pieces, revealing a casual painterly command behind the spontaneous exuberance of color. Layer upon layer, Kuipers adds depth and reflection, guiding and enticing the eye.

The amount of control that goes into making the reliefs and installations — the tedious process of testing, adjusting, detaching, replacing, touching up, refitting — is negated by the wonderful feeling of unpremeditated growth the works evoke. You can see Kuipers’ playfulness, his delight in discovery and a sense of wonder, and remain happily unaware of his efforts. The work itself has a tendency to dissolve into images and associations while it draws you in; it induces an experience of being closely connected to the world, even as you are temporarily oblivious to your actual surroundings.