Rob Smulders

Based in Tilburg (the Netherlands)

Smulders has continually made abstract paintings, painted confidently with energy, using conceptual and sculptural ideas, and with his own physical techniques to create contemporary paintings that never cease to mystify and won’t still. Smulders refuses to be pinned down, kept evolving and it’s becoming his thing.

The main subject is paint in the way it manifests itself as color on a surface. In order to achieve new results Smulders excludes conventional techniques of painting. For years he started working in an abstract way after his time (2014) on a Fine Arts Academy  in Belgium, where his education was classical. In 2018 he graduated from the Academy for Art Education & Design ( The Netherlands ). 

For Smulders the process of painting looks like a scientific experiment, repeatedly testing the regular and irregular qualities of paint.

“In producing a work I react on the moves on the canvas with gravity doing a big part of the job. Rhythms and repetitions are essential” 

In his work he deals with a complexity in which a continuity manifests itself. For years Smulders has been studying codes. These codes are transformed in a repertoire of paintings.

The process of making his colorful paintings is essential. Step-by-step Smulders applies paint  on an installed surface and he lets gravity do its work. The painting paints itself: the paint drips down over the flat surface and creates a(n) (un)controlled pattern of lines and forms. My work shows mainly the aspect of abstraction and experiment, as far as the concept matters.

“All Colors do have an effect on us in a certain way. Together they can communicate new values to the viewer. But in the same time add something to the perception and the experience of the viewer”

Artist Statement

Nowadays we are living in a digitally dominated era. Everything´s fluid and time and attention for things of interest vanishes. For Smulders it is of utmost importance to capture these digital expressions in an analogue scripture. His early work is based on the ‘The Human Printer’ principal. According to this principal digital codes and tasks are the key elements for analogue conceptual art.
In his working process Smulders is constantly looking for unconventional techniques to produce works whereby room arises for experiment. After his classical education he freed himself from the figurative approach and started to specialize in a more conceptual direction. Abstract experimental works with an emphasis of the way paint shows itself on a surface, are the expression of this.

The imperfection within the perfection is something intriguing for him all his life. It stands for living in the moment by the power of imperfection and deficiency.

“My work never have come into existence, if I wouldn’t have been busy studying the binary system. In fact half of the world is functioning with binary systems and we all are more and more dependent on digitalization”

Calculations and encodings are intriguing for me all my life through. In the process of working I am constantly looking for irregularities. I transform these irregularities in order to create a new picture. Mistakes don’t exist, are treated as irregularities. These irregularities are the exact opposite the rigid binary ‘orthodox’ system. In life it’s all about equilibrium and finding the right balance as in Yin and Yang.