Frank van den Broeck was born in Eindhoven in 1950. He studied at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten (State Academy of Fine Arts) in the Netherlands. Ever since his appearance on the Dutch contemporary art scene in 1980, his presence has been as consistent as it has been discreet.
Indeed, Van den Broeck works and thrives in isolation. His studio is a more than a mere work environment, acting as a creative space, a laboratory of sorts. Experimentation is key, his quest for a new approach, means of expression or aesthetic sometimes involving long stretches of painstaking toil. This process, of course, comes with a cost, as it limits his artistic exposure and requires solitude.
A believer in the image and its power, Van den Broeck has set a course for his work from which he has deviated only when necessary. Thematically consistent, he has cultivated and curated a personal and intimate oeuvre defending art’s place and experience in the visual world.
Major exhibitions have signposted the development of his oeuvre: his work has been shown in exhibitions at The Living Room (1981, 1983, 1987); at Galerie Slewe (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014, as well as numerous solo exhibitions there); and in one-man shows at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (1982); in the Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht (1989, 1993, 2002, 2011-2012); again in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (1991); and at the Stichting De Pont in Tilburg (1994). More recent exhibitions include: De Ketelfactorij, Schiedam, with the publication of a box of 50 notebooks by 50 artists (2020); Collection presentation, Museum De Pont, Tilburg, (2019); Bloemenweelde, group exhibition, Teylers Museum, Haarlem (2019); … waar de reden geen weet van heeft / … of which reason knows nothing, sculptures, photographs and drawings, presentation of the museum’s commission to the artist for the collection, Centraal Museum Utrecht (2019); Weerzien, group exhibition, De Pont Museum, Tilburg (2017-2018); Scape, group exhibition, Galerie Maurits van de Laar, The Hague (2017); Artist First/paper only/the Exhibition, group exhibition, Francis Boeske Projects, Amsterdam (2017); Track and trace I en II, jubilee exhibition, Galerie Maurits van de Laar, The Hague (2016); Amsterdam Drawing, Galerie Maurits van de Laar, The Hague (2016); Snapshot to a larger order, group exhibition, De Ketelfaktorij, Schiedam (2016); Nog niet eerder vertoond, De Willem II Fabriek, Den Bosch (2016); part of the permanent collection, Centraal Museum, Utrecht (2016–2020); Execution of a commission by Centraal Museum, Utrecht (2016-2018).
