RIQ
About the artist
Somewhere in 2005, I started doing graffiti in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. This was my first experience with artistic expression in the public space. Long before this happend I was drawing already. As a child, drawing kept me away from the reality and its pressure. Nowadays it still does. Next to creating murals, which is my focus at the moment, I animate, illustrate and create public interventions. It became an obsession in which I feel blissful when working on a piece. The child who started all this is still present in current work and person. I have a strong belief that one should cherish his inner child. To challenge its curiosity which keeps the mind young. Human behavior is something I like to observe. This often leads to a counter reaction u can find in my work. Not so much on the surface but symbolic naive and abstract. For example behavior on social media, where not the quality of the work matters but the quantity of posts, followers and likes. In my opinion its the opposite which counts. For 7 months my wife, me and two cats have been traveling trough Europe in a camper. During this tour it was my aim to paint as much as walls as possible. This led us to a lot of abandoned areas and cultural communities. Also in Barcelona. Being able to paint at so many different places kept me challenging myself to experiment and discover. At the moment I find it interesting to find a way in which I can make and present my work as pure as possible. These days it is a trend to be very busy. That's not for me. Of course I like to work on large assignments and I want to paint more facades of apartment buildings. As long as I feel the urge and it makes me happy to create I will continue.