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Willem van der Hofstede

Willem van der Hofstede (Rotterdam, 1957). The subject of his paintings is the constructed environment, mostly the city. It started out when a big building in his neighbourhood was demolished. Everyday another part went and he understood that he had to be quick, if he wanted to capture any of it. He painted a series of demolished buildings and construction sites. He called them ‘the changing city’ or ‘the dynamic city’.

Painting is always more than just registrating. It is about the interaction between the surrounding and memories, experience and imagination. Sometimes the emotions even become the real subject matter. This is how the series of ‘tell tale places’ came to being.
Because Van der Hofstede started concentrating on the planning of a city, he wanted to understand how architecture and infrastructure together define the shape of the city. Often he looked at the city from a high viewpoint. This became the series ‘structures of the city’. 
After that, he started out on the theme ‘culture nature’. We don’t find real nature in Holland, but still, life is everywhere. While his earlier painting showed hardly more than glass, stone, steel and plastic he now looked for places where culture and nature come together.

His last works show decayed and overgrown buildings which brings us back to where he once started: ‘the changing city’.

Education

1995   Afgestudeerd aan de Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten, Den Haag. Disciplines: tekenen-schilderen-grafiek

Solo exhibitions (selected)

2015 Realisme Amsterdam met galerie Chiefs & Spirits
2015 Affordable Art Fair Brussels met galerie Chiefs & Spirits
2015 Art Breda met galerie Chiefs & Spirits
2015 Affordable Art Fair Maastricht met galerie Chiefs & Spirits
2015 Affordable Art Fair Hamburg met galerie Chiefs & Spirits
2014 (In)constancy of space, Mestrovic Pavillion, Zagreb, Kroatië Groepstenstoonstelling over de veranderlijkheid van de ingerichte omgeving.
2014 Art Breda, beurs voor kunst en antiek Art & Antique met galerie Chiefs & Spirits
2014 AAF Brussel met galerie Chiefs & Spirits
2014 Affordable Art Fair (AAF) Maastricht met galerie Chiefs & Spirits
2013 Art Gent met galerie Chiefs & Spirits
2009 Open Art Fair, Jaarbeurs Utrecht met Galerie Chiefs & Spirit
2009 Artifac ‘De stad’ 
2008 Galerie Art Cube ‘Ever renovating city’ 
1997 Diligentia schilderijen 

Group Exhibitions (selected)

2014 Regio Art Rijnmond ‘Between worlds’ 
2008 Galerie van Cappellen ‘sporen’ 
2008 Galerie Van Cappellen ‘landschap & architectuur’ 
2007 Atelier van Speijk 2 schilderijen 
2002 Galerie Plein 55, Doorn schilderijen 
2002 Galerie Wawana, Maastricht installatie DUO
1999 Toussaintkade, Den Haag ‘van mij over mij’, zelfportretten 
1998 Congresgebouw Den Haag North Sea Jazz Festival 
1998 Caldic Collectie, Rotterdam zelfportretten

Assignments

2016 Insulinde, Den Haag
2011 Mariniersmuseum, Rotterdam
2011 Historisch museum, Deventer
2009 Wbv Staedion, Den Haag
2006 Café 'De vinger' (muurschildering), Den Haag

Awards

2014 Subsidie ivm expo in Zagreb Stroom Den Haag 

UTRECHT