Klaas Jonkman
In the current era, people lack positive peace and tranquility. With my work I want to let people experience silence and subtlety. There is no right or wrong; With my work I show that everything is an interaction, so that you appreciate everything around you more and get more perspective. Dark and light moments of life and painting alternate and come together. A dark moment always carries something instructive or beautiful. There is no light moment without the dark.
A flower withers after showing its beautiful colors. Death can give energy instead of fear. Something that was alive and cohesive (a group of fireflies for example) is then coldly ''pinned'' on a canvas to form an attractive image. It’s beautiful if you look at it closely and at the same time it’s an example of decay. It’s Beautiful to look at and also has a ''terrible beauty''. With my work I confront the viewer with contradictions. In addition to light and dark, with micro and macro, acceleration and movement, life and death.
Phenomena such as water, light and reflections, fleeting and elusive, are brought together in a seductive and spatial pattern that makes the viewer fall from one discovery to the next. Perhaps the origin of my work lies in my youth that I spent in Malawi, Africa, so my paintings are often tropical and colorful.
‘Klaas knows how to involve the public in his domain with craftsmanship and astute observations and to bridge the boundary between him and the other.’
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