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Born in Maastricht, Netherlands, in 1961, Rik van Iersel now lives and works in Eindhoven.

During the initial stages of his career, van Iersel experimented with cartoon illustration but eventually directed his artistic pursuits to the possibilities of painting, within both a technical and subjective realm.

Entirely self taught, van Iersel’s work coincides with Art Brut’s hailing of marginal, outsider artist figures and the COBRA movement’s revival of expressionism.

Over the years he has developed a collection of powerful and unadulterated subject matter by weaving his everyday impressions of the outside world with his own internal dialogues.

As a perpetual, obsessive adventure, painting functions as a means to exploring and richly satisfying van Iersel’s curiosity. His primary concerns revolve around the dynamics of human relationships in its many different revelatory forms, and for Rik, painting announces those resolutions. He exalts the communicative power that the actual "process" of painting allows him. The viscosity of the paints, the electrified palette, the furious, determined strokes, wandering sketches and scratched surfaces demonstrate an uninhibited, raw expression through his materials. Furthermore, the elongated anatomy, distorted countenances and skittish lines expose an art laden with idiosyncrasies. Van Iersel reveals an intense psychology coupled with a playful, childlike innocence.

Exhibitions

• 2009 Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
• 2006 No Colours Today, Galerie Peter Borchardt, 18m sized wall relief for the University of Eindhoven, Essener
  Architekturtage, Eindhoven, Netherlands.
• 2005 Transparancy Wolk, Peter Borchardt Gallery, Hamburg, Germany.
• 2004 Scribble for Life, Peter Borchardt Gallery, Hamburg, Germany.
  Transparancy Wolk, Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven, Wilhelmshaven, Germany.
  Transparancy Wolk, Museum van Bommel van Dam, Venlo, Netherlands.
  
• 2003 Art Cologne, Peter Borchardt Gallery, Kunsthalle Arnstadt, Arnstadt, Germany.
  Art Frankfurt, Peter Borchardt Gallery, Frankfurt, Germany.
• 2002 Art Frankfurt, Peter Borchardt Gallery, Frankfurt, Germany.
  The 27 Points, Kunsthalle Dominikanerkirche, Osnabrück, Germany.
  MU Artfoundation, Eindhoven, Netherlands.
  De Krabbedans, Eindhoven, Netherlands.
  Willy Schoots Gallery, Eindhoven, Netherlands.
• 2001 Borzo Gallery, 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.
  Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
• 2000 ART Frankfurt, Peter Borchardt Gallery, Frankfurt, Germany.
  No Words Today, Peter Borchardt Gallery, Hamburg, Germany.
  Marek Zlotos, Karlsruhe, Germany.
  Art Miami, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, Miami, FL.
• 1999 ART Frankfurt, Peter Borchardt Gallery, Frankfurt, Germany.
  Tammen & Busch Gallery, Berlin, Germany.
• 1998 ART Frankfurt (at Peter Borchardt Gallery).
  One Way Or Another, Peter Borchardt Gallery, Hamburg, Germany.
  Willy Schoots Gallery, Eindhoven, Netherlands.
• 1997 Borzo Gallery, 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.
  Tammen & Busch Gallery, Berlin, Germany.
• 1996 Witteveen Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
  Saarländisches Künstlerhaus, Saarbrücken, Germany.
  Tammen & Busch Gallery, Berlin, Germany.