Gerben Mulder (1972, NL) has developed a body of work that is between essentially figurative with traditional themes on the one hand, and abstract expressionism on the other. With an iridescent palette, his portraits, his flowers and still-life paintings emphasize psychological aspects (melancholy and euphoria) and a subjective dimension of the images. His works radically emphasize the materiality of painting, being conceived in a physical way. The gesture is strikingly wide, quick, and omnipresent. The spiral brush strokes, graphic-like, retro modernist mark-making bring a contemporary edge to this genre.