RéSUMé

 

Studied Fine Art & Industrial Photography at 'Academie Minerva' School of the Arts Groningen NL where his principal tutor was Diederik Kraaipoel and graduated with honors (BfA) while winning the 'Groningen FineArt CityAward' in 1965. Two years later he was admitted to the Jan van Eyck Academie Maastricht NL, a post-academic institute for research and production in Fine Art and received an endowment for three years from the Ministry of Culture. While doing his work in Environments, Installations & Intermedia and collaborating with students from the Conservatorium and the School of Architecture, his tutors were JCJ Vanderheyden and Shinkichi Tajiri. During this period he atteded and participated in the 'Aktionen' by Joseph Beuys in Düsseldorf. While graduating (MfA) he received the 'Maastricht FineArt CityAward' for his Environment in 1970.  During the Seventies he received a bi-annual work stipend and in 1975 a travel grand from the Ministry of Culture and worked for six month in NYC while participating in workshops at the School of Visual Art by Robert Rauschenberg. Subsequently he was invited as an apprentice/assistant at the Dance/Theater/Productions of Cage/Cunningham/Rauschenberg. In this decade he received his first Public Art commissions and developed his skills and expertise as a Site Specific Artist and Public Art Consultant. As such he was a member of the National Arts Council, the National Arts Office for Abroad and chair of the National Urban Arts Committee. As consultant he worked for the cities of Rotterdam, Dordrecht, Amsterdam and Art & Industry Foundation in Amsterdam.

During the late Seventies and Eighties he was, for five years, among the initial three Fine Art Consultants, with Architect/Director Wim Quist of the Chief Government Architect Office, a department of the Government Buildings Agency. As a result of appreciation for his public works and consultancies, he was selected in 1983 to his first tenure as a part time Intermedia & Fine Art Lecturer at 'St. Joost' School of Arts Breda NL. Later followed by similar part time tenures at the School of Art Amersfoord and the School of the Arts Utrecht NL until 2010. As guest-teacher/artist-in-residence/lecturer at Art Schools and Universities in Europe (Eindhoven, Doncaster, Tallinn, Gdansk, Oslo, Helsinki, Palermo, Cork) and the USA (Jersey City, Santa Barbara, Washington DC, Oakland). Also in 1983 he became a board member of the International Sculpture Center Washington DC, starting an extended period of parallel research/works/lectures between the Netherlands and the US, in Washington DC, NYC, San Francisco/Berkeley/San Jose and Los Angeles/Santa Barbara/San Diego. While working from his Hollywood studio he was a volunteer/assistant for Ray Eames and after meeting Isamu Noguchi at the Eames House did work for him as a site supervisor.  His two visits to the studio of Richard Diebenkorn in Santa Monica, the impact of his paintings and later, after his extended stays in the Mojave & Sonora Desert and Joshua Tree...he started to paint. His Desert Series were initiated 'Then & There' and are continued, developed and enhanced up until today.

His dual residency between Amsterdam and, initially San Francisco & Bay Area and later Los Angeles & Hollywood, lasted until early 1989 when he was selected as executive director/senior curator to  organize, design and curate '11 Cities, 11 Nations Contemporary Nordic Art & Archirecture' for the summer of 1990 in Leeuwarden NL. Twentyeight individuals from 11 Cities, seventeen archtitects and eleven artists, 11 teams from 11 Nations, realizing 11 autonomous pavilions/sanctuaries for 11 visual artists. After this event, and up until now, he started to organize and curate, compact and intense,  Art & Architecture excursions, workshops and seminars to Italia (Venezia, Milano, Firenze, Pietrasanta, Lucca, Pisa, Ravenna, Rome, Palermo) and USA (NYC, Washington DC, Chicago, Miami, Atlanta, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Palm Springs).  His exhibitions and presentations happened in Amsterdam, Doesburg, Doncaster, Edinburgh, Groningen, Haarlem, Los Angeles, Maastricht, NYC, Oakland, Santa Barbara, Talinn, Velp, Washington DC and his work is in the collections of Groninger Museum, Bonnefanten Museum, Stedelijk Museum, as well as company and private collections in Estonia, Italia, Netherlands, Sweden and USA. He completed Urban Art commissions for the National Government, Provinces and Municipalities as well as Corporations and private individuals, ranging from small intimate works to large scale urban projects.

During the Nineties until the present day he concentrated on the development of his studio work and commissions in concert with his part time teaching in Intermedia & Fine Art at the Utrecht School of the Arts and his part time Municipal Urban Art Consultancy in Haarlem. From 2004 he was a board member of Paradox Fine Art European Forum and Director/Curator of Urban Fabric One (UF1)in Palermo 2009 and UF2 in Cork 2011. 

Next to his company Spatial & Fine Art Inc Amsterdam established in 1979 and parallel to everything mentioned earlier, he started AEROMANCE, MidCentury Naval Aviation in 2001, which is a research, reconstruction and preservation company. He is a member of Paradox EU, Arti et Amicitiae Amsterdam NL and The Tailhook Association San Diego USA.