Jean-Paul Opperman (1980, The Netherlands)

Education:

Graphic Techniques, Arnhem. 1994-1996
Graphic Design, LOI. 1996-1997
Graphic Design, Utrecht. 1998-2000
Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam. 2000 – 2005

When I was young the act of drawing was a certain wannabe behavior. I collected cartoons at that time and I wanted to be able to draw my own stories upon what I felt like. My choice when I was 14 to study graphic techniques was quite obvious in that sense. But it was not until the age of 17 that I got into visual art and not modern art but renaissance art. Aging had a lot to do with that, just like cartoons had with telling stories. So I started to paint, again not as a talented person but as someone who wants create art that somehow survives. I bought pigments, primed my own canvas just like they used to do this. Often it took me 2 weeks to prime and than I didn’t know what to do. To happy with my bright white canvas, the empty canvas showed life in it’s most primary behavior and that priming could easily survive for hundreds of years! For my looks and art behavior it can even be said that I started to dress myself even more as magician back than, because I somehow felt enlightened by the thought of creating paths of survival.

 

Key Hole – 70×100 cm (1998)

Laboratory Me – 240×220 cm (2003)

Personal Initiation – 50×75 cm (2004)

Dark into Light – 320×400 cm (2005)

 

Later on when I entered the academy of art, l came again as an outsider, misunderstood from which I myself was mostly to blame. When l choice cartoons and renaissance it came from my own my urge and questions but if you have no clue on what art should communicate all ideas are fake. 6 years after my previous dreams I found the thought of rebirth, which was in the basics an African approach to my childhood love for myths and cartoons so l started again. Rebirth came and l felt new and my style changed to installation art, some said l got influenced by Beuys and such but this was not true. I could understand where he came from but for myself I was hypnotized by the thought of creating a cocoon for my new world, an installed book story in which I and the others could feel protected. Sure l got my inspiration from the African initiations but l didn’t realize that l used another aspect of surviving, the initiation as a way to build skills to survive in the real world, another part of the hero archetype, he needs to overcome difficulties.

 

Outsiders – 80×140 cm – 2006

Open your roads – 200×240 cm (2007)

Beijing Bridge – 240×350 cm (2008)

 

Late 2005 after my graduation l started to feel different cold, lonely and empty. All was done, and there I was standing, I could continue in my academic behavior, exhibit my art in galleries, have fun with my title and all, or continue study to get a master degree but I decided different. I went back to my roots and thought ok I’m going to create drawings and tell my stories again and I’ll see what I keep from what they told e on art school, so I did. Super strong I felt because I broke with all those years before in choosing for myself. What l actually said was I’m here and I need a mirror to see if I’m here. So I started to draw and I came back to myself, telling stories but now from the art point of view instead of cartoon like, so somehow those years where not lost at all.

 

Bliep – 70×100 cm (2008)

Wishful Thinking – 40×40 cm (2009)

Bring it Home  – 260×440 cm (2009)

Owww Noooo  – 220×340 cm (2009)

 

 

Back in 2008 I had a period that I also started to create videos and other more conceptual art, because I felt like breaking again, it’s easy to fall asleep in what you if your no longer aware of it. It made me happy and proved that my eyes where still open. Later on the same happened with poetry and writing, as a way to explore new fields and potential integrations with my stories. Now in 2010 I oftentimes have the feeling that I look at my drawings and think yes, in some way I was thinking the same way on the academy 7 years ago but it’s all different now, that’s a great feeling because it’s shows I’m still close to myself in my art.

 

 

Bubble Bee Beat – 50×65 cm (2010)

Here’s a sinking Ship – 40×45 cm (2010)

Powww  – 260×345 cm (2010)

Bottom-line will be that my art is telling stories on daily life with symbolic languages and oftentimes based upon cartoon like archetype happenings, like a stranger that walks into the world, a little misbehavior, shouting without meaning, being tired or bored, love etc. No political or religion related messages, but a small stage where one prevails with his lips and footsteps the rhythm of his time in lines, papers, smiles and hopes. When art comes to life it becomes a little myth itself, which we should cherish like being all kids seeing a cave painting for the very first time. Why do those bulls walk on stone wall a kid could ask. The father would say it’s Art and they Artist would say, it’s the place for art to walk there where the other’s didn’t walk before….how else could our message be seen?