Koen Kievits
Koen Kievits was born in 1996 in Hilversum, The Netherlands. During his holidays as a kid, he and his family would visit an old farmhouse which his grandfather had bought in France. It lies secluded on a hill, overlooking a valley and right in front of the house stands a dolmen, an ancient construction of stones which give the place a mysterious atmosphere. Forests to explore, fires to stare in and night skies to behold gave him magical memories of the place and shaped his relation with the landscape and its phenomena. During his artistic practice, Kievits has re-explored this area and the true connection he has to it. This piece of land serves as a deep well from which many of his ideas originate. The dolmen and its surroundings often return as motifs in his work.
The fascination for the landscape and its power to shape who we are and might become is something which Kievits tries to explore. By making photographic works, installations, video works and by altering found objects, photographs and images he tries to express feelings of the sublime, timelessness and transience.
Koen Kievits studied ‘Base for Experiment, Art & Research’ (Fine art) at the University of the arts ArtEZ in Arnhem, graduating in 2019. By now he has participated in various group shows and art fairs in the Netherlands. He has been artist in residence in Italy, Germany and Norway. In 2022 the Mondrianfund granted him the ‘Kunstenaar start’ subsidy, supporting his practice as a starting artist.