BIO

Timothy Van de Laar moves freely between painting, sculpture and animation, yet always within one coherent universe.
It is a parallel world in which the body appears as a sculptural landscape filled with folds, irregularities and traces of something relic-like and mythic. His work explores human imperfection and presents imagination as a force that slips away from control. The atmosphere is ritualistic, grotesque, physical and deeply surreal. The result is both unsettling and unexpectedly comforting.

In his paintings, executed in oil on wooden panels, figures emerge that seem familiar from a distance.
With every step closer they break open into new shapes. The bodies shift, lose their boundaries and escape any expectation of perfection. Their strength lies precisely there. They remind us of our own vulnerability and incompleteness.

His sculptures are assemblages that give physical form to fragments of the same world. His animations are the digital echoes of that universe. Although they are built entirely through virtual processes, they carry the care and intention of handmade choices. They resemble paintings in motion that gradually carve out their own path.

Van de Laar works from intuition. He investigates, experiments, gets lost, finds direction again and leaves space for chance. In that open field, images arise that he had not yet encountered himself. His daily observation of human gestures and small movements acts as an essential point of departure.

All of his work is driven by a persistent hunger for an image that has not yet revealed itself anywhere.