House facades, street canyons, vehicles and pavements – since the early 2000s, the Belgian painter Koen van den Broek has made his urban environment the subject. He moves with ease along the boundaries of abstraction and reality.

Starting points for his paintings are photographs that he takes on road trips. Bridges, pavement slabs and streetlamps are detached from their original context and develop a life of their own. It seems as if his paintings zoom in on these details, arranging and composing colours, light and shadows. Thus, by adding a few details, the initially inconspicuous and deserted places become magnificent streetscapes; shadows create exciting contrasts, and the generous monochrome use of colour directs the eye. The exhibition Of(f) Road shows a cross-section of Koen van den Broek’s painterly oeuvre from 1998 to the present.

Koen van den Broek (*1973 in Bree, Belgium) first studied architecture in Leuven and then painting in Breda. His works can be found at, among others, Astrup Fearnley Muset (Oslo), Los Angeles County Museum of Art, SMAK (Ghent) and Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp.