Born: 1951 in Antwerp, Belgium

E D U C A T I O N
1991-1993 Ir. Architect (bachelor), K.U. Leuven
1993-1995 Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp
1995-1997 Academy of Visual Arts St. Joost, Breda, Netherlands
1997-2000 Higher Institute of Fine Arts Flanders (H.I.S.K. Flanders), AntwerpThrough paintings of arresting, cinematic power artist Koen van den Broek examins our experience of landscape, from close-up views of bleak urban corners to huge, empty swathes of countryside. While the borders, the curbs and the cracks latently point at the abstract character of the present-day, urban landscape, the imagined space is further purified to a purely geometrical structure of lines and colours, an anti-form that underlines the two-dimensionality of the painted surfaces. This subtle balance between form and colour, perspective and levelling off, figuration and abstraction, betrays an accurate knowledge of and preoccupation with the heritage of 20th century art, from Matisse to American Minimalism.