Ricardo van Eyk is an observer. Without idea or plan, literally with an open visor, he looks at the world. Those who follow his Instagram account (civil.rve) see the inspiration that Van Eyk finds in everyday reality, in the architecture of the city, and the structures in the landscape around us. Van Eyk is attracted to the traces of the subjective and the coincidental, such as a discarded neon sign, the roof construction of a hangout for young people, weathered walls, peeling doors, bent fences, strange stains on the asphalt, graffiti. His work is imbued with an autonomous view, a unique perspective on the world around us and how that world reflects the human condition.
In some of his recent paintings Van Eyk seems to be observing the world from above. The painting ‘OPERA (PLANE) II’, 2024, evokes associations with complex intersections in highways, magnified and seen from above, a bit like zooming in on a route in Google Maps. The painting consists of various types of netting and lacquer on which a pattern of lines and broader bands can be seen. The pieces of netting have been stretched, in layers, over a frame with plexiglas. The transparency of the plexiglas allows all traces of ‘quality of the plexiglas – to play a role as elements in the work. The result is a scintillating, almost graphic image. Van Eyk's work bears witness to a vision of our world that is not only serious, but also has a certain lightness and humor: recent works, for example, bear the title ACME. That word is said to be an acronym for "American Company that Manufactures Everything". In the 1920s, the word was often used in the names of companies that had to be listed at the beginning of alphabetical telephone directories such as the Golden Pages, implying that this was the best. Van Eyk remembers the image of the word on product packaging in the cartoons of his youth where it was used in an ironic sense, because the products were often prone to malfunction or explosive, so catastrophically counterproductive!