Koen van den Broek

Koen van den Broek’s paintings explore subtle abstract forms embedded in the urban landscape. His work was presented at the 2015 and 2017 Venice Biennales, and in 2008 he collaborated with John Baldessari on a body of work exhibited at the Bonnefa...

Koen van den Broek’s paintings explore subtle abstract forms embedded in the urban landscape. His work was presented at the 2015 and 2017 Venice Biennales, and in 2008 he collaborated with John Baldessari on a body of work exhibited at the Bonnefanten, Maastricht, and Galerie Greta Meert, Brussels. Van den Broek received his bachelor’s degree in architecture before studying painting at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, the St. Joost School of Art & Design in Breda, the Netherlands, and the Higher Institute of Fine Arts in Flanders, Antwerp. Architecture serves as the primary source of inspiration for Van den Broek. Painting from photographs of cracks in the sidewalk, shadows of buildings and bridges, highway overpasses, and stone curbs taken on his travels in Asia and the United States, he reduces these man-made architectural forms to their essential geometry. Devoid of figures, his canvases nonetheless imply the presence of human intervention.