Artist Jan van der Ploeg expresses his creativity mostly on walls. With over 260 wallpaintings, his work has spread the world at various locations like museums, buildings and people’s interiors. Since 1997 a part of his work is recognizable by the iconic ‘grip’ shape, that is based on the handle of a cardboard moving box. This shape is the base for all his paintings but at the same time he always manages to give each piece a different spin. Jan van der Ploeg always takes a careful look at the building he is going to paint, so his work becomes one with the building itself. Windows, stairs and doors play a significant role in his artworks.
Van der Ploeg does not limit himself by just painting on walls, he also creates tiny, intimate paintings. Just like his ‘spatial’ work he uses black and white in contrast with colourful colours. A part of his collection is available at Gerhard Hofland Gallery in Amsterdam. Last week this gallery was participating at PAN art fair and Froukje Holtrop, the gallery assistant, told me an amazing story about how to ‘move’ a wall painting by Jan van der Ploeg. She told me that a couple in possession of a great ‘van der Ploeg-creation’ on their wall wanted to move somewhere else. For a minute they lost their cool when they started thinking about how to move this piece from one wall to another? You would think they just had to leave their pride-on-the-wall behind. Fortunately van der Ploeg took away their concerns and was kind enough to paint their special designed piece once again on their fresh new wall. All’s is well that ends well.
But we’re not there yet. The new residents of the sold house liked his work on their newly bought wall so much they wanted to keep it. Very understandable but a bit more complicated than you might think. Because the piece was specially designed for their predecessors (and of course they payed for it), Jan van der Ploeg unfortunately could not allow them to keep the wall painting. Which meant they had to paint their colourful wall white again and hide this wonderful treasure underneath a thick layer of plain white paint.
So good to know that when buying a real wall painting by Jan van der Ploeg you can actually ‘move’ it and take it home anywhere you want to live. The exclusivity of his work will remain and you will always be the proud and only owner of your special designed piece.