Paul Ouwerkerk

Paul Ouwerkerk grew up in Europe and West Africa. From 1982 – 1986 He attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Rotterdam. Dissatisfied with the results of his mixed studies in Interior Design, Sculpture and Photography, he applied for a two-year residence at Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht.

From 1988 – 1995 he pusued a career as an artist involving group and solo exhibitions and a gradual route to recognition as an artist. The fruits of his early emergence can be seen in his 2022 monograph´TIME TOOLS AND PRACTICE´.

Between 1995 and 2015 he shifted his interest to graphic design, which he was able to develop in collaboration with internationally acclaimed architecture firms such as Rem Koolhaas´ OMA, MVRDV and various incarnations of Claus en KAAN architecten. During this period he developed his interest in grids, numerical sequences and size aspect ratios as well as construction of visual ‘machines´ and  sequencers (kinetic logos).

From 2015 Ouwerkerk started to re-emerge into the artworld, initially focussing on his new development(s) while not rushing to seek new recognition. In 2017 he presented all new works at Borneo Architecture Centre in Amsterdam. From then on, things have developed in turmoil – eventually leading to a solo exhibition and book presentation at BMB Project Space in Amsterdam in 2022 and 4 (group) exhibitions in 2023 so far.

His career involves painting, sculpture, photography, time-based media and graphic design. His involvement with visual representation of architectural projects and firms has attracted international critical acclaim.

1 The insertion of PO’s visual odyssee into the realm of commissioned design work can be found at graphic-language.eu