In Jurriaan Molenaar's architectural landscapes, emptiness predominates, captured in mathematical structures that like to mislead the viewer. The longer you look at a painting by Molenaar, the further reality seems to disappear from view. If the multitude of vanishing points does not cause enough confusion, he also uses the third dimension by applying paint in extra thick layers, using trapezoidal canvases or going beyond the canvas with painted wood and other materials.
As a result of a large-scale renovation of the building in which Molenaar works, emptiness now also predominates in his studio. In the absence of the artist, the works and the countless jars of pigment have been temporarily stored elsewhere. To create space, Molenaar also shows earlier works from his own collection in this exhibition, resulting in a small-scale overview of 20 years of painting.
The earliest work – Dug Out – dates from 2002, made with special paint he brought back from his stay in New York in the years before. The very pasty technique he used here is hardly visible in his later work in this show. It is precisely the total lack of painterliness that characterizes his paintings, but the humor with which Molenaar uses the third dimension in Dug Out is also often present in his later work.