The amazing visual constructions by Michiel van der Zanden (NL) contain both ironic lightness, as sincere wonderment and are rooted in pop culture, virtual games and the images from his childhood.

Van der Zanden takes his conscious observations of oddities and props in his daily environment into the digital world. Using 3D software, he can examine these observations, magnify and manipulate them.

The 3D renderings serve as sketch material for his paintings. The clear digital traces, combined with a sophisticated painting technique, conduct a magnification and alienation of reality for the second time.

Color Works, Solids and Models is a collection of recent works which is less figurative then his earlier work and provide more room for association. The recurring forms in these works are reminiscent of clay, toothpaste, graffiti or excrement. But strictly speaking it’s paint. Van der Zanden makes his seemingly random paint stacks out of ‘falling’ paint streaks from squeezed tubes. The manner in which the ‘paint sausages’ are stacked then, unmixed, that’s the final image for Van der Zanden. An ode to oil paint.