image: Janna Bathoorn

Dokkum, 1975
Graduated at School of Fine Arts Minerva, Groningen, 2000

Trained as a painter, I have always had a strong appreciation for craftsmanship, transformation, and the reuse of existing imagery.

I recycle and reinterpret existing visual materials by fragmenting them into very small pieces and using them to “paint” again.

My work can be seen as a form of physical, layered pointillism, where small, pixel-like fragments are carefully assembled into new, often painterly compositions.

I am fascinated by this process of deconstructing and rearranging visual imagery.

I mainly work with vintage reproductions of well-known artworks from art history, as well as with experiments in acrylic paint on acid-free board.

Each work is physically constructed from fragments sourced from vintage art prints of works in the public domain, salvaged from waste streams and discarded books. These prints are cut into small tiles and recomposed one by one into layered visual compositions.

The process is labour-intensive. While the source material originates from printed imagery, the final work is fully physical, tactile and materially present.

From a distance, the image reads as a unified whole. Up close, individual fragments reveal texture, colour variation and traces of their origin.