Rens Krikhaar
Apeldoorn, NL, 1982 Works and lives in Den Haag
Rens Krikhaar studied at the Artez Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in Enschede and the Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten in The Hague, the Netherlands. In 2012 he was nominated for the Dutch Royal Prize for Painting. He is represented by Galerie Maurits van de Laar in The Hague, The Netherlands.
Art history and general history play a major role in the mysterious paintings and drawings of Rens Krikhaar, together with experiences from his own life. Burning ships on stormy seas look like historic sea battles or shipwrecks. The obscure, figurative works present ambiguous scenes. The fact that nothing is fully explained creates a continuous feeling of suspense.
Together Krikhaar’s drawings are a day-to-day visual archive. He compares this to a diary with room for experiments, investigations and solutions for issues in painting. Death never seems far away in these surrealist dream worlds. There are many peculiar details included in his work.
Rens Krikhaar at the opening of Beyond Tradition