Smits van Burgst, Niels

Niels Smits van Burgst (1970) has graduated from the Royal Academy in The Hague. His Works form part ofa number of prestiguous private collections and have been shown in a number of museums. His work has been shown in a large number of international exhibitions.
Interview with Niels Smits van Burgst by Gijs Wanders:
“It is my ambition to make paintings which are about now, today. None of my paintings ever lives up to what I feel is good. Hence I keep painting to achieve the perfect painting. To my mind art can only have human beings as topic. I walk the streets with my camera and take picture of people in their daily surroundings.

More frequently I use images I find on internet, mainly because these picture are made without too much thought – are ephemeral. It is not the quality of the images that I am interested in. It is the scene that fascinates me. I give new life to these anonymous and fleeting pictures. I have a huge collection of images of people showing their identity. These public pictures, setting and behaviour, show our present day and age. As truth never reveals itself completely, my paintings have a tendency to become more and more diffuse, less obvious. What one sees is a moment in which nothing seems to be happening, yet in a moment the situation can be totally different. The story is up to the onlooker”.