Erik van Lieshout

Erik van Lieshout (1968, Deurne, Netherlands) lives and works in Rotterdam. de the environments and situations he examines. Unlike a documentary filmmaker, he becomes an active participant, provoking reactions and navigating his own discomfort as visibly as that of others. His installations frequently take the form of rough, half-finished constructions, temporary stage sets assembled from salvaged materials, in which films are accompanied by collages, sketches and paintings that extend and complicate the filmic narrative.

What distinguishes van Lieshout is the precision with which he maintains a balance between self-exposure and social observation. His videos weave documentary footage, fictional elements and an extremely subjective commentary into a layered structure that keeps his own limitations firmly in the frame. The result is neither confession nor critique alone, but something more uncomfortable: a continuous negotiation between "me" and "we," between the individual subject and the collective conditions that shape it.

Van Lieshout studied at the Academie voor Kunst en Vormgeving, 's-Hertogenbosch (1990) and Ateliers '63, Haarlem (1992).

Solo exhibitions include René Daniëls, Maureen Paley, London (2022); René Daniëls a film by Erik van Lieshout, De Pont Museum, Tilburg (2021); Art Basel Art Blasé, Anton Kern Gallery, New York (2021); Art Basel Art Blasé, Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam (2020); The Beer Promoter, Galerie Guido W. Baudach, Berlin (2019); Three Social Works, South London Gallery, London (2017); Sündenbock, Hannover Kunstverein, Hannover (2017); G.O.A.T, Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam (2017); Erik van Lieshout: The Show Must Ego On, WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels (2016); I am in Heaven, Anton Kern Gallery, New York (2015); Private View, Maureen Paley, London (2014); Ministry of Subculture, Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam (2012); How Can I Help You?, Hayward Gallery, London (2011); Commission, MMK Frankfurt (2012); and Naughty by Nature, not because I hate you, Groninger Museum, Groningen (2002).

Group exhibitions include Unfinished Conversations: New Work from the Collection, MoMA, New York (2017); "The Encyclopedic Palace," 55th Venice Biennale, Venice (2013); Manifesta 10, St. Petersburg (2014); Brave New Worlds, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2007); Gwangju Biennale (2006); and the Berlin Biennale 4 (2006).

Van Lieshout was awarded the Heineken Prize for Art in 2019. His work is held in the collections of MoMA, New York; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam; and Centraal Museum, Utrecht, among others.