Koen van den Broek Belgium, b. 1973

Belgian painter Koen van den Broek has garnered international recognition for his unique style bordering between figurative and abstract art. In his work, he explores the geometrical spaces of modern society through roads, or traffic structures, using his distinctive technique to navigate between reality and metaphor.

Before completing his master's degree in painting, van den Broek studied architecture, where he cultivated a practice of examining the shapes of road signs, parking structures, grid-patterned sidewalks, bridges, and urban boundaries. His approach of 'pure observation' focuses on these structures not to emphasize their functionality, but to highlight their colors, geometric elements, and distinct individuality. By observing often overlooked or forgotten building facades and landscapes, van den Broek has developed a unique visual language. When transferring these images to canvas and infusing them with abstraction, he continuously deconstructs and reinterprets the scenes, pushing them toward semi-abstraction.

After two decades of artistic exploration with oil paints, he began incorporating everyday materials like traffic paint and tar into his artwork since 2023. This shift allows viewers to appreciate his more disciplined approach to the formal elements he has developed over the years, as well as his ongoing journey to explore new creative techniques. Being combined with his visual sensibility and original analysis, the landscapes not only create a new dimension of elevated sensitivity but provide the higher level of an uplifting idyllic experience difficult to come across within the recent environments of contemporary art.

Koen van den Broek  lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium. He received a BA in Architect in Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and studied painting in St. Joost School of Art & Design, Breda, Royal Academy of Fine Arts, and Higher Institute of Fine Arts in Belgium. His solo exhibition has been held in major museums in Europe, including the Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp (2024), Ludwig Museum (2024), Kunstmuseum Magdeburg (2023), Weserburg-Museum of Modern Art (2016), S.M.A.K. the Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art in Ghent (2010), Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens (2005; 2009), Bonnefantenmuseum (2008). His work is represented in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in the USA; S.M.A.K., Museum of Modern Art Antwerp, Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens in Belgium; Astrup Fearnley Museet in Norway; and Leeum Museum of Art, Busan Museum of Art in Korea.