Erik van Lieshout

Van Lieshout studied at the Royal Academy of Arts and Design in s-Hertogenbosch, but left after three years to study at Ateliers '63.  His style is direct and uses humour. He focuses on contemporary issues and social questions and does not shy away from reactions to his work or controversy that challenges his own position, or from scrutinising the political landscape, death and love, the position of minorities in society, and other major themes.  

Van Lieshout’s work has been exhibited around the world and is in the collections of the MoMA in New York, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, MMK in Frankfurt and Centre Pompidou in Paris. Among other awards, he won the Dr A. H. Heineken Prize for Art (2018), the Tiger Short Award for his short film Janus (2013), and was nominated for the Prix de Rome in 1999.