Coen Groot

Salto Mortale

Coen Groot creates paintings that are a frantic attempt to capture reality. They arise from struggles and the duel with the image unfolding on the canvas. These images stem from observations, emotions, and impulses, from both the conscious and subconscious.

His fascination with human tragedy translates into the depictions of bodies—human and animal—and their social relationships as abstract, theatrical scenes. Figures interact physically and socially. The paintings require the viewer as a point of reflection; they impose themselves, demanding a relationship.

The works can be both cruel and sensitive.

Coen considers painting the only art form where intuition and impulses completely dominate. It is a process in which you can fully immerse yourself in your experience and the act of painting itself. He paints on a large scale: "To paint a small painting is to place yourself outside your experience. You look at that experience as if through a microscope. When you paint larger, you're inside it. Then it's not something you command.