Maurice Thomassen

In his work, Thomassen challenges the borders of painting by combining innovative and traditional materials and techniques. He paints, for example, with coffee, silicone paste, tempera, acrylics, oil paints and veneer. He glues elements on canvas, print elements beforehand, or wash paints into the unprepared canvas. This way the painting develops step-by-step and results in numerous layers. The beginning point of a painting (series) often lies in newspaper or other media image material, which refer to a current socio-political and/or controversial issue.

Thomassen’s work has been shown around the world and can be found in private and public collections. His most recent (group) exhibition was ‘Memory of Beautiful Horror’, Dominican Embassy in New York in 2015. His work is made possible by several stipends and grants.

Thomassen was educated at the Academy of Fine Arts and the Jan van Eijk Academy, Post- Graduate Institute for Fine Arts, Design and Theory, both in Maastricht, the Netherlands. He works and lives in Brooklyn, NY, USA and Rotterdam, NL.