The works of Rob Bouwman (b. 1981) specially created for Bug2 gallery consist of translucent patterns painted in color with oil paint on thick sheets of paper. The patterns consist of various painterly actions based on the imagination of a single crystallized paint stroke. The paint stroke as an image and as an action has been the starting point of his work for many years. His images create a tension between atmospheric impressions of light and the spatial illusion produced solely by the material nature of translucent colors and patterns on a clear surface. While our way of seeing becomes increasingly rushed and influenced by the use of the many digital media around us, painting demands something different. Another concept of temporality, a concept of being and duration. A concept that Bouwman represents through his abstract imagery, and one can wonder if that first momentary glance at the work is the right one.

Rob Bouwman lives and works in Haarlem. He studied at the Frank Mohr Institute and did two exchanges at Hunter College NYC. His work has been shown in multiple exhibitions both in the Netherlands and abroad. He has been nominated several times for the Royal Prize for Painting, received a working grant from the Mondriaan Fund in 2015/2016, and his work is now in several private and public collections.