Solo Show: Ger Doornink

Ger Doornink paints large portraits predominantly of women, combining different aspects and techniques from his career as a fashion photographer and graphic designer. His paintings highlight vibrant colours, framing lines and the model’s gaze, through which the artist seeks to delve into their souls.

This painter, illustrator, and photographer spent several years in Tokyo and Milan before returning to Amsterdam, where he studied the classics such as Rembrandt or the post-impressionism of Van Gogh, influences that he has transferred to his works.

Doornink acknowledges that his time in Japan profoundly influenced him, both its culture and the work of its artists, from which he has drawn much of his inspiration and technique, similar to Van Gogh’s experience.

In this sense, he considers himself influenced by “cloisonism,” a painting style that uses flat colors, outlined in dark and perfectly delimited contours, devoid of perspective or decoration in the background.

“Van Gogh first saw ‘cloisonism’ in Paris from Japanese artists, and he began to paint based on this,” so, after learning about this trajectory and being inspired during his time in Japan, “I began to paint in the same way.”

However, the Dutch artist acknowledges that his work is also influenced by his roles as a graphic designer and fashion photographer, which leads him to capture portraits in his paintings, highlighting the beauty of women.

Ger Doornink (1949) trained at the Art Academy of Arnhem, after which he began working as a designer and photographer for fashion magazines, eventually becoming a multidisciplinary artist.