Studio Uiterwaal Kroes

Acrylic paint on photographs

Abstract portrait photos of a human face with black, blue, and beige paint brushstrokes on white background.

Fernando, 2025
100 × 80 cm edition 1/1

Abstract portrait photo of a human face covered with pink and beige paint against a white background.
A black and white photograph of a woman with long, wavy hair and an elegant pose, with a piece of abstract, colorful paint covering her face.

Roberto, 2025
24 × 18 cm edition 1/1

A person with short dark hair. The person's face is partially obscured by colorful paint, with streaks of yellow, blue, and white cascading down the face, blending with the shadow cast on the person's neck and shoulder.

Bárbara, 2025
40 × 40 cm edition 1/1

Abstract painting of a woman's portrait with colorful brushstrokes and a white background.

Amara, 2025
100 × 80 cm edition 1/1

A black and white portrait with colorful paint splatters on a white surface.
A person with dark hair and a shadowed face sitting in front of a white background, splattered with blue paint.

Faas, 2022
40 × 40 cm edition 1/1

Claire, 2025
100 × 80 cm edition 1/1

Abstract explosion of colorful paint splatters on white paper with a black and white portrait of a person's face in the background.

Dahlia, 2022
40 × 40 cm edition 1/1

Photograph with a splattering paint palette with streaks of paint on a white surface.

Moritz, 2024
50 × 40 cm edition 1/1

Maas, 2024
50 × 40 cm edition 1/1

An abstract splatter of multicolored paint on a black and white portrait photograph with orange, brown, black, and white paint splashes radiating outward.

Olivia, 2022
40 × 40 cm edition 1/1

Abstract artwork resembling a human face with blue and beige paint strokes on white background.

Cilou, 2025
40 × 40 cm edition 1/1

Studio Uiterwaal Kroes developed from a shared interest in the politics of representation and the portrait as an instrument of control. The practice began with photography but gradually shifted into a hybrid form in which the photographic image is physically manipulated with paint, blurring the boundary between photography, painting, and performance.

The works operate within the domain of portraiture but refuse its traditional function of identification and fixation. By physically overpainting their own likenesses, they interrupt the photographic contract of recognisability. The portrait is no longer a representation of a stable subject but instead reveals transformation itself: the moment between who you were and who you are becoming.

Central concepts include liminality, destabilisation, and the performativity of identity. Identity does not appear as essence but as a role that can be rewritten. The right to that rewriting is a question of power. In a visual culture in which faces are continuously captured and classified, the works claim the right to illegibility.

Methodologically, the duo works with direct paint interventions on photographic prints. Reflective pigments make the image dependent on light and movement; not all interventions are visible at the same time. The work manifests in relation to the viewer and remains in a state of transformation.

The practice positions itself within contemporary discourses on surveillance, facial recognition, and biopolitics, and references a tradition of photographic manipulation (Gerhard Richter, Thomas Ruff), while emphasising the body as a political battleground.

The artist duo Studio Uiterwaal Kroes consists of Aron Kroes and Merette Uiterwaal.