Bas Princen
Bas Princen
Bas Princen is a Dutch artist who was born in 1975. His work has featured in several exhibitions at key galleries and museums, including The Met Breuerand the Barbican Art Gallery. Bas Princen's first artwork to be offered at auction was "Future Highway" at Venduehuis der Notarissen in 2017; the work was unsoldBas Princen has been featured in articles for "WHITEWALL", "e-flux" and "Aperture". The most recent article is "The Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology in Lisbon Opens 2019 with Three New Exhibitions" written by for ArtDaily in January 2019.
Before transitioning to photography, Dutch artist Bas Princen studied architecture and product design. Today, his photographs are not only informed by architecture but also by an awareness of human relationships to both built and natural environments. Princen has also been known to reference scientific measuring systems, mapping, and amateur anthropology in his work, and his artistic practice has involved plotting ecological changes—water currents, wind patterns, and soil erosion, as well as the impacts of urban developments on the Dutch landscape.
In his 2004 photo Artificial Sand Dune, from his Artificial Arcadia series, Princen pictures a manmade dune along the Dutch coast where birds are often stranded during their annual migrations. Birdwatchers, alerted via text messages, often travel to the dune to assist the stuck birds; Princen’s documentation of this phenomenon consequently illuminates how human technology can both hinder and aid animals.
Princen was the recipient of the 2010 Silver Lion at the Venice Biennale, the Prix de Rome Architecture in 2006, and the 2004 Award for Promising Young Artists and Architects from the Prins Bernard Culture Fund. His work can be found in public collections worldwide, including at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and The Hague’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Princen’s work has also been shown in solo exhibitions at the Netherlands Architecture Institute, the National Gallery in Amman, Jordan, and the Institut Néerlandais in Paris, among many others.
Recent exhitbions include: Five Cities, Depo, Instanbul 2010; Invisible frontier, AUT, Insbruck 2008; Nature as Artifice, Kroller Muller Museum, Otterloo and Aperture Foundation, New York 2009; Spectacular City, Nai, Rotterdam, 2006; Talking Cities, Essen 2006; The Venice Bienale of Architecture 2004 and 2006; and Shrinking Cities, Archilab, Orleans 2004 and Berlin 2005.
In May 2004 He published a book about his work “Arfificial Arcadia” with 010 Publishers (Contriburors: Bart Lootsma, Wim Cuyvers, Lars Lerup, Dirk Symons, Jeff Dersen); in 2007 “Rotterdam” with Witte de With Publishers; in 2008 “Galleria Naturale” for Linea di Confine, Rubierra; and in 2009 “Five Cities Portfolio” with SUN Publishers.
In 2005 he was awarded a residency in Los Angeles with the Mak Schindler stipendium and in April 2004 he won the Charlotte Kohler Prize for promising young artists and architects in the Netherlands.