Sander Reijgers

Sander Reijgers ranks among the most distinctive voices in contemporary Dutch painting. His works emerge from a radical process—often spanning months—comprising hundreds, even thousands, of superimposed layers of paint, rendering time both visible and physically palpable. What appears from a distance to be monochrome painting reveals, upon closer inspection, a vibrant topography of color, texture, and memory.
With his “Diaries,” Reijgers transforms the act of painting into an archive of lived time: each layer represents a single day, an experience, a trace of presence. His works hover between painting and object, between control and autonomous growth. Through the consistent repetition of this action, he creates works of extraordinary depth and quiet intensity that transcend the boundaries of classical abstract painting.
Reijgers’ art enjoys an international presence and is acclaimed for its uncompromising materiality, its meditative consistency, and its unique synthesis of color, time, and space. His works do not merely present an image—they preserve the history of their own creation within every single layer.

CV & Exhibitions >

Works

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CV
Sander Reijgers
*1977, Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands
Based: Zeist, the Netherlands

2014 Teacher fine arts; grade one, HKU, Utrecht, the Netherlands
2006 BFA, HKU, Utrecht, the Netherlands

The paintings by Reijgers show fields of color that have been built up by placing paint layers over each other after coating. In this method, the artist has exercised respect for the surface, for paint material, for color and for brush or roller in extreme control. By giving the paint layers a certain drying time, he can manipulate the way in which they react to the next layer. In this way, the skin of the painting arises in a controlled process, as if the painting were an organism in growth. The front view of the canvas shows this stratification by the play of light on the almost mobile colors; Paint points and balls that create this color and light show are created by the regularly broken paint surface. At the same time, this depth is present because the different layers are still visible at the edges and at the sides of the canvas.
The process of painting is a conscious surrender to time and action for the artist. Respect for the way the material responds to this leads to structures that arise from the relationship they have with each other. And from this process of becoming, the painting is created as an autonomous item. Sander Reijgers sees this method and the surrender to this as an opposition to the speed and volatile result orientation of today’s society.
The time needed to come to a good painting – and that can be years – requires control and silence. The artist’s temperament has been tempered and curbed and a painter has been born in the true sense of the word.
Text by MPV Gallery

Solo exhibitons
2023 Galerie Obrist, ‘Past the closing time’, Essen D
2017 Majke Husstege Projects, ‘Resistance’, s’ Hertogenbosch
2016 Galerie Helder, ‘Geschwitter’, Den Haag
2011 Galerie LHGWR, ‘Kunst hoort aan een spijker’, Den Haag
2010 TAG/Concrete, Amsterdam
2008 Galerie Kappur, ‘Icons’, Tilburg

Group exhibitions (selection)
2020 Horizonverticaal, ‘10 jaar HV’, Haarlem
2020 Galerie Larik, ‘Artistintheworld’, Utrecht
2020 MPV Gallery, s’Hertogenbosch
2020 Galerie Roger Katwijk, Amsterdam
2019 PAN Amsterdam, Galerie Roger Katwijk, Amsterdam
2019 WelikeArt, ‘Pick Me’ bij Collectie DE.GROEN, Arnhem
2019 MPV Gallery, ‘Interlude’, ism met Graphic Surgery and Mike Ballards, s’ Hertogenbosch
2019 P60, ‘Couleur Vague’, Assen
2019 Kunst Rai, Galerie Roger Katwijk, Amsterdam
2019 Galerie Roger Katwijk, Amsterdam
2018 PAN Amsterdam, Galerie Roger Katwijk, Amsterdam
2018 KetelFactory, ‘The eye is in the Centre / Magnify Me, Schiedam
2018 ARCO, gallery Jochen Hempel, Madrid, Spain
2018 Gallery ALSO, ‘Barrier’, Los Angeles, USA
2018 Studio Beige, Salon Salon, Rotterdam
2018 PHK18, ‘Paint me a city’, Rotterdam
2017 WelikeArt, ‘Secret Postcard Sale, Amsterdam
2017 Galerie Roger Katwijk, ‘Winter / X-mas show’, Amsterdam
2017 Galerie Roger Katwijk, ‘Revealing Contrasts’, Amsterdam
2017 Galerie Jochen Hempel, ‘Today’, Leipzig, Germany
2017 ACEC, Abstract Wall Painting 3, Apeldoorn
2017 SBK Breda, ‘Space of Time’, Breda
2017 Art Rotterdam, We like art, Editions & Multiples, Rotterdam
2017 Vishal, REGENERATE #2, A WAY OF SCREEN PRINTING, Haarlem
2017 Arti Capelli, ‘what, but what’, ’s-Hertogenbosch
2016 Art The Hague, Den Haag, Galerie Helder
2016 Galerie Helder, ‘Geschwitter’, Den Haag
2016 KunstRai, Galerie Helder, Amsterdam
2016 Rotterdam Contemporary Artfair, Galerie Helder, Rotterdam
2015 Nieuwe Vide, Haarlem
2015 Art The Hague, Galerie Helder, Den Haag
2015 KunstRai, Galerie Helder, Amsterdam
2015 Rotterdam Contemporary Artfair, Galerie Helder
2014 Art The Hague, Galerie Helder, Den Haag
2014 Galerie Helder, Everything at it’s right place, Den Haag
2014 KunstRai, Galerie Helder, Amsterdam