Opening: 3 PM.
Opening speech Jeroen Chabot: 3.45 PM
Vlaar and Wessels became close friends at art school. They gained cult status with their subversive animated series Purno de Purno, which left generations of viewers as confused as they were delighted.
These days, they’re back to painting—still with the same taste for play, confusion, and disruption.
In the world of VlaarWessels, illusion is not a trick, but a method. Their work doesn’t explain—it tempts you to ask yourself: what am I looking at? Their paintings explore dream logic, shifts in identity, ambiguity, and the seductive power of illusion. The viewer is invited to get lost—and to enjoy the freedom that comes with it.
Their process is a game. VlaarWessels make use of oracles: riddle-machines that produce instructions full of potential, but devoid of explanation. They are fragments from a collective unconscious. VlaarWessels engage in a dialogue—exploring, reshuffling, responding from their own associations, art historical knowledge, and intuition.
Their philosophy is clear and uncompromising. They work like Barbapapas: fluid in form, free in style, refusing to be boxed in. They transform according to the idea they want to capture—form follows fantasy. Through montage, overpainting, and interpretation, a hybrid form of painting emerges—one that changes with every idea.