ENJOY Painting

In the paintings by Michel Boekhoudt, visual quotes from contemporary popular culture, the world of communication and advertising and art history are downloaded and appropriated without hierarchy to be put on canvas with seemingly perfectly controlled turbulence. The quotes are re-copied and freed from their commercial context. A hedonistic mixture of a manic collection of samples spewed back on the canvas. An almost elusive orchestration of images that bomb the viewer. The elements float over each other and out of the frame, as if the viewer sees a frozen frame of a constantly moving world. It is certainly not about recognizing each image individually, but about the dialogue between the images within the painting on the border of abstraction and figuration. Through dislocation and reconfiguration of these elements, an abstract reflection is given on contemporary life and our insatiable desire for images. The intention is not so much to please, but to challenge the viewer and meanwhile ask questions about authenticity, cultural and economic values, looking, seeing and perception in general.