Marcus van Soest - Untitled

Marcus van Soest
Oil painting on panel
1995

Marcus van Soest moves his work between figuration and abstraction. His sizable, highly colorful works are absurdist, capricious and humorous in tone and testify to a fantastical spirit. Marcus predominantly creates figurative, colorful, humorous, bizarre, and estranging acrylic paintings in which madness is central: "l'Art de la Folie". A work by his hand is very recognizable and certainly authentic to call: form and color use are very recognizable and his visual language is optimal and multi-dimensional in nature.

Marcus was born in 1965 in The Hague, spent a year studying at the K.A.B.K in The Hague (graphic design), ran away with a loud cry, and further educated himself in the "Vrije Schilderkunst" (self-taught). He regularly exhibited at Pulchri Studio in The Hague and there won in 1998 the Van Ommeren-de Voogt Prize. In 2002 Marcus was allowed to design the poster for the Crossingborder festival and he made a banner for the annual sculpture exhibition Sculptuur in The Hague. Marcus regularly works in his studio in France and exhibits there at Galerie "Le Rire Blue" in Figeac. His latest exhibition there, "Figurations Libres" with, among others, Robert Combas, Francois Boisrond, Buddy Di Rosa, Erro, Roberto Solivieres et al., took place in the summer of 2003. Currently Marcus is working on establishing a center for cultural exchange in Cajarc, France: "Maison des Hirondelles"