-
Biography
Thomas Kuijpers (b. 1985, the Netherlands) is a visual artist whose work explores the role of contemporary medianarratives within our perception of the actual world.
Thomas Kuijpers sees the world as something fluid, manipulated, constructed. Rather than adhering to the idea that it can be experienced objectively, his work reveals the world’s slippery nature and the forces that perpetually shape it — newspapers, television, the internet, politics, adverts, social media, technology, products and more. For Kuijpers, the world is always perceived through or influenced by something. Truth is dependent on who, what, where, when and how, and we are never impartial.
Kuijpers’ investigative works start with his daily experience of current events, happenings that rapidly become a kaleidoscope of diverse, overlapping, conflicting perspectives — including his own. Each event is copied and pasted indefinitely through an endless media landscape, and it is these copies — images, articles, conversations, videos, memorabilia, quotes — that Kuijpers habitually collects over years, forming archives of competing realities.
Acting as artist, editor, anthropologist and collector simultaneously, he scrutinises and rearranges his archives until the structures of our media-saturated world are uncovered. Kuijpers then assembles his findings into new constellations, often taking the form of experimental, multimedia installations, inviting us to be aware of the illusions and rhetoric that mould our everyday lives. Ironically, it is only through Kuijpers’ obsession with the minute parts of the world that we see just how fragile it is as a whole.
Thomas Kuijpers completed his MFA Photography in 2011 at AKV St. Joost (Breda, the Netherlands) and has been exhibited at institutions, fairs and galleries internationally including: Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Foam, Amsterdam; Krakow Photo Month, Krakow; Fotopub Festival, Novo Mesto; Beaconsfield Gallery Vauxhall, London; Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt; Red Hook Labs, New York City and MASP, São Paulo amongst others. In 2017, he was nominated as a Foam Talent and his latest book, Hoarder Order (Fw: Books, 2020) was shortlisted for the Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation Photobook Awards 2020.
-
Exhibitions
-
'One of a Kind'
A 10-year anniversary show with unique pieces 3 Sep - 22 Oct 2022When, in 2012, Narda van 't Veer and Jasper Bode founded The Ravestijn Gallery, they were amongst the few galleries in the Netherlands who felt photography was more than simply...Read more -
Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie Mannheim | 'Volumes'
Thomas Kuijpers 19 Mar - 25 May 2022Shaping Data Shaping Data explores how the widespread use of digital technologies affects our physical bodies, frames our opinions, and alters human interactions. We spend lots of our time with...Read more -
PopInnArt | 'When The Twins Were Still Beautiful'
Thomas Kuijpers 11 - 12 Sep 2021PopInnArt organiseerde in het weekend van 11 en 12 september, na 1,5 jaar lockdown, weer een grote tentoonstelling. De enorme industriële hal van 1000m2, een verstopte parel in hartje Oud-Zuid,...Read more -
Noorderlicht | 'Volumes'
Thomas Kuijpers 7 Aug - 3 Oct 2021THE MAKEABLE MIND Curator: Paulien Dresscher | Junior curator: George Knegtel Departing from photography, the 28th edition focuses on the entire spectrum of the image, both analogue and digital: from...Read more -
'Volumes'
Thomas Kuijpers 8 May - 26 Jun 2021Over the last year, flatness has preceded everything. Whether through the screens we use for daily meetings or the newspapers we leaf through looking for news about tomorrow, flatness is...Read more -
Unfair | ‘Opt for change’
Thomas Kuijpers 3 Jul - 23 Aug 2020Every edition, they show 40 solo presentations with the most recent, unprecedented work of the best upcoming and established artists of today and tomorrow and present an extensive program with...Read more -
Mucho Mas! | 'Decor'
Thomas Kuijpers 30 Oct - 30 Nov 2018Decor is an experiment by Thomas Kuijpers, departing from the way images to him most of the time are incapable of transmitting emotions on a deeper level, because they are...Read more -
Unseen | 'Grolsch Residency'
Thomas Kuijpers 19 - 23 Sep 2018 -
Ruimtekoers Festival Arnhem | 'First year'
Thomas Kuijpers 15 - 25 Nov 2017The third edition of the Ruimtekoers Festival took place in Arnhem. With art exhibitions, theater, music and dance performances, workshops and lectures, created by professionals as well as city dwellers,...Read more -
'FOAM Talent'
Thomas Kuijpers 1 Sep - 12 Nov 2017This year Foam presents - for the first time - the Foam Talent exhibition in Amsterdam. The presentation highlights the work of 20 international artists, consisting of countless subjects and...Read more -
Museum Arnhem | 'Millenials'
Thomas Kuijpers 8 Oct 2016 - 29 Jan 2017With ‘Millennials’, Museum Arnhem showed work by ten artists, most of them belong to the generation that is referred to in the media as Millennials: born after 1980. Millennials are...Read more -
FOAM | 'When the Twins were still beautiful'
Thomas Kuijpers 18 Dec 2015 - 31 Jan 2016It all started with a painting by an unknown artist depicting the iconic image of the Twin Towers. The description only said ‘painted before 2001’. When visual artist Thomas Kuijpers...Read more -
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam | 'On the move'
Thomas Kuijpers 24 Aug 2014 - 18 Jan 2015ABOUT THE EXHIBITION On the Move reveals the many ways in which artists and photographers work today, also in collaboration with graphic designers. The title On the Move refers both...Read more
-
-
Series
-
'Bridge' 2024
Thomas KuijpersThe Project In Giverny, Normandy, the grounds of Claude Monet’s former house host carefully-landscaped gardens, devised and arranged by the artist himself. A Japanese bridge straddles a pond of water... -
'Dirty Desks' 2024
Thomas KuijpersDirty Desks (2024 - ) Thomas Kuijpers' project Dirty Desks emerges from his fascination with our digital origins, marking the point where our physical presence began yielding to the demands... -
'Volumes'
Thomas Kuijpers 8 May - 26 June 2021Over the last year, flatness has preceded everything. Whether through the screens we use for daily meetings or the newspapers we leaf through looking for news about tomorrow, flatness is... -
FOAM | 'When the Twins were still beautiful'
Thomas Kuijpers 18 December 2015 - 31 January 2016It all started with a painting by an unknown artist depicting the iconic image of the Twin Towers. The description only said ‘painted before 2001’. When visual artist Thomas Kuijpers...
-
-
Art Fairs
-
Publications
-
Press
-
NAP+ is een frisse kunstbeurs met een optimistisch DHZ-sfeertje
Edo Dijksterhuis, Het Parool, September 13, 2024 -
Vlagvertoon voor Trump - De protestmars naar het Capitool
Thomas Rueb & Thomas Kuijpers, de Volkskrant, January 6, 2023 -
Special: Go Go Gallery Show #4
Eva Zandkuijl, De Kunstmeisjes, May 4, 2021
-