About icons

Icons are painted according to strict rules and hardly evolve like other artworks do due to art movements. Icons are holy objects. That’s right, the object itself is holy. It can be seen as a devine window to heaven.

Some people find it provocative that I would dare calling my paintings icons, but the term icon is also used to describe famous people who made a mark like Mother Teresa or Nelson Mandela, they are used for signage and so forth. For me calling my paintings icons plays with that, with all of that.

Icon #020

I had a solo exhibition at the Ikonenmuseum (icon museum) in Kampen the Netherlands. A clerk doing voluntary work for the museum laid down his work to protest against me being invited into the museum. On the other hand my work was bought by a priest. Dealers, museum professionals and historians don’t have any problem with my work. They see my intent and are not threatened by it.

I hope my work mirrors our society, contemporary art and of course the Middel Ages to create a new in its reflection.