Simon Schrikker (1973) - Shark

A work from the private collection of the Unique Sharks series, which Simon Schrikker began in 2013.

The thick layers of oil paint with which Simon works hang partly over the edge of the canvas, and that is something that characterizes this painter's work.

I purchased this work back then from the artist's studio, and it has hung in a dry, smoke-free space ever since.

Simon Schrikker
My work has one binding factor: the search for the boundary between figuration and material. Sometimes this happens literally, with the thick layers of oil paint creeping beyond the frame of the canvas like a slowly advancing lava flow, sometimes more figurative or associative through the disorienting atmosphere in my watercolors, animations, murals and, recently, sculptures. With my work I want to engage the viewer. What do I see? What happens literally and what is filled in on a psychological level? When does the image transcend itself and meaning goes deeper, in other words when does it acquire the necessity to be seen? When I translate my fascinations into paint, the work is driven by emotions and instincts such as fear and power and the clichés attached to them; consciously and unconsciously blended into a cohesive mixture.

Simon Schrikker (Utrecht 1973) is a painter pure and simple. He studied at the Minerva Academy in Groningen, the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent (B), and earned his MFA at the Dutch Art Institute in Enschede. The work is represented in leading Dutch collections such as Museum Voorlinden, Drents Museum, Kunstmuseum Den Haag and the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, as well as in private collections at home and abroad.