Jan Maarten Voskuil exhibition at Peter Blake Gallery

Sat, Aug 24 - Sun, Sep 29  2019

Throughout August and September, the Peter Blake Gallery hosts an exhibition of the work by Jan Maarten Voskuil (b. 1964). Based in Haarlem, NL, Voskuil’s paintings are constructed from multiple panels of different shapes and dimensions unified into a whole. His frames are always three-dimensional and his surfaces are never quite flat. The individual components of the works are some assortment of convex, concave, beveled, and arched, with the edges of the works lifting up, down, and away from the wall. Despite the many disparate elements, the individual parts of the paintings come to fit together in seemingly perfect congruity. As such, his multipart works require an exacting process of preliminary design that is then followed from building the frame to finalizing the complete work.

Because of the meticulous nature of his paintings’ designs, Voskuil’s practice is inevitably rooted in geometry, but the artist insists on limiting the role of mathematics in the works to a practical necessity. Voskuil’s shining distinction is his ability to bring playfulness to his monochromes. For a process as demanding as his, the works somehow manage to put forth a carefree presence. His precise approach ultimately embraces the beauty of irregularity.