The fifth edition of Kunsthal Light puts the spotlight on former street artist Johan Boer (1969). This Rotterdam-based artist and signmaker made a national and international furore in the 1990s with his illegal sticker art, which he applied to museum buildings. Boer creates his ‘dripping paint art' using layer upon layer of adhesive film. His work is distinguished by its colourful and associative imagery. Exclusively for the display window along the Kunsthal's front slope.
Plastic Graffiti
Johan Boer's artworks consist of large stickers made from layers of adhesive film, a technique used in outdoor advertising. Inspired by various forms of street art such as graffiti, Boer is the first artist to use stickers as his artistic medium. The brightly coloured paint ‘drips' and the illegal application of the stickers are instantly reminiscent of graffiti. Boer designs the stickers in his studio so that he can apply them on the spot in just a few minutes. His plastic graffiti is often removed swiftly and in some cases this is even done by the police. Boer therefore also slashes his creations so that they are more difficult to remove. Boer uses his work to inform people about the function of the building to which he applies them. The artist wishes to give museums their very own logo, in the same way that butchers and pharmacies, for example, have a general logo.
Kunsthal Light #5
Johan Boer
Johan Boer applies his artwork to many well-known buildings. He has stuck his designs onto the windows of art institutions such as the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands Architecture institute (NAI), the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Victoria Miro Gallery and the Ludwig Museum in Cologne. In the past, art lovers could enjoy Johan Boer's ‘legal' art at the 1998 exhibition ‘Johan Goes Legal', with his series entitled ‘Lovers Lane', four close-ups of people kissing which he applied to the windows of the CBK (Centrum Beeldende Kunst) in Rotterdam. Boer completed his training to become an illustrator at the Academy of Art and Design in Rotterdam in 1997.
Artist Talk and Unveiling, Friday 29 June
The work will be unveiled on Friday 29 June 2012 at 4 pm with an Artist Talk between Johan Boer and Boris van Berkum, visual artist and former director of Showroom MAMA.
