Smoking Props #1

"...Here he (Kruithof) has taken pop culture icons of rock, punk and jazz and line-drawn them in oilstick, smoking away with cigarettes as prop (as was ‘cool’, somewhat socially acceptable and everywhere on album covers and promo fotos of the time). Mingus, Lou Reed, Nina Hagen, Beefheart, Blondie, Zappa, Grace Jones and others appear with text and recontextual juxtapositions. The paintings are loosely based on old photos but Kruithof’s brash handling of the oilstick (a fave of Basquiat) lends them an immediacy and a vibrancy that jumps at you."

John Hardaker, 2022

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Sydney Australian born and based, Dirk Kruithof studied a Fine Arts Diploma at Meadowbank and Kogarah Tafe, 1999 - 2001, Majoring in Painting. His subjects are language and information, the urban environment, words signs and symbols, beauty and decay. A kind of Pop Expressionism often incorporating elements of text or graffiti like marks. Dirk uses photographs, sketches, the net, loud music, newspapers, and life in the big bad city as source material and inspiration! Admires and influenced by artists like Wool, Basquiat, Kippenberger, Cullen, Bacon, Ramellzee, Dubuffet, Ian Fairweather, Lee Krasner and many others. Dirk has been exhibiting regularly since 2005.