Justus Donker (XX) - All the Time

Original work by Justus Donker
Mixed media on canvas
Signed on the side

All the Time is a powerful, spontaneously built work in which painted letters, abstract shapes, lines and figures meet in an almost graffiti-like manner. The large hand-painted words “ALL THE TIME” jump out at you, while the text at the top — “you only get to do it once” — gives the work an extra personal and philosophical resonance.
The combination of thick layers of paint, bright colors, black contour lines, and seemingly spontaneous brushstrokes gives the work a pronounced, unpolished character. It is precisely this direct and free visual language that makes the work interesting: playful at first glance, but with a clear underlying message about time, life, and the moment.

Donker became known in the early 1990s as a member of the group After Nature, of which he was part from 1989 until its dissolution in 1995. Other members of the group were Peter Klashorst, Jurriaan van Hall, Bart Domburg, and Ernst Voss. The first exhibition of After Nature with Donker took place in 1990 at the Seasons Gallery in The Hague. In the following years, the members of this group visited the United States several times to participate in exhibitions and painting performances.
Together with his fellow painting brothers Gijs Donker (1964) and Aad Donker (1967-1998), who were also members of After Nature, he became known as one of “the Donker brothers.” After the death of his brother Aad, Donker stopped painting for several years and moved to Wehe-den Hoorn in the province of Groningen. In 2009 he moved back to Leiden, where he grew up.