KOMPRESOR (2022-ONGOING)

Part of the Blok series (Nigredo phase)

Emerging from the alchemical Nigredo phase, the Kompresor series investigates digital compression and psychological transformation through airbrush portraits. These works depict faces dissolving into pixelated abstractions, where facial features emerge from and disappear into the gridded structures characteristic of the broader Blok series.
Executed with meticulous airbrush technique, the portraits embody a paradox of control – the medium allows for hyper-precise gradations that nevertheless depict profound loss of detail. Each work begins with a high-resolution source image that undergoes systematic degradation, mirroring the destructive yet transformative nature of the Nigredo process. The resulting images hover between representation and abstraction, their compressed forms speaking to both digital mediation and psychological reduction.
As part of the Blok series’ exploration of rigid systems, Kompresor documents this initial phase of breaking down – where human identity confronts the relentless geometry of compression algorithms. The faces become landscapes of data loss, their fading particulars giving way to the emergent patterns of the underlying grid. This systematic undoing serves as necessary precursor to the subsequent alchemical stages of the work.

EXHIBITION HISTORY

The Way the Wind Blows / Stormslag (2025)
Curation: Storm Wilschut
Kabul à GoGo, Utrecht

Forever Young (2024)
Curation: Beroeps Organisatie Kunstenaars
Boterhal, Hoorn

INCUBATOR (2024)
Curation: Boris Gunst, Feodora Ratsiborinskaya
Documentation: Sil Munik
Kunstkerk, Dordtrecht

DUNGEON – Solo Exhibition (2024)
Curation: Bram Engelaar, Niek van der Veer
De Nijverheid, Utrecht