The artist
Childhood
Zandvliet grew up in the neighborhood Delfshaven in the Dutch harbor city Rotterdam. During this time Delfshaven was considered to be a multicultural neighborhood, something that influenced Zandvliet a lot in his later art work. This shows in his technique, but also in the themes he uses.
After primary school Zandvliet attended the graphic career school (from 1983 until 1987), which wasn't a big success. In an interview[2] he once claimed that he got in to a fight with the school director and got suspended. He decided to attend the Public Academy, to specialize in model drawing and fashion. (From 1988 until 1991)
Freelook magazine
In 1992 Zandvliet started, together with his wife, Freelook magazine.[3] This magazine was a project intended for the youth in the neighborhood Delfshaven, in Rotterdam. The editors of the magazine were all local youngsters. Pieter mostly was busy with making comics for the magazine, but also published his own comic albums. Most of them were about the Rotterdam street life. Besides this he became editor in chief of the magazine.
Galerie Slaphanger
In 1994, also with his wife, Zandvliet started the gallery Galerie Slaphanger. This was a small gallery with mostly exhibitions of amateur artists. Also this gallery became a selling point for self published comics and music. After moving to a new building the self published products became more important. From all over the world people sent their self made and self published art to Gallery Slaphanger. The gallery became a stronghold for underground music, noise, literature, art and comics. Small concerts were organised, poetry nights, lectures, exhibitions, movie nights and a festival called "het plaatendraaiersfestival" (The record player festival) where people could bring their own old records and play them for the visitors. Galerie Slaphanger stopped existing in 2003.[4]
Artists exhibiting in the gallery were, among others: Chris Berg, Tom Oomes, Eddy de Waal, Bas van Tuyl AKA Bombastus, Marc van Elburg, Koen Hottentot, Nar=me, SAGE art, Sjef Henderickx, Itam van Teeseling, Arjen de Jong, Monique Veldhoven, Damy van der Waal, Rocket Freudenthal, Timex, Joost Geertsma, Jan Tromper, Jollen van der Zwan, Tommy de Roos, Daan van Eijndhoven, Guido Jelsma, Jason Austin, Marc Dancey, Maaike Hartjes, Barbara Stok, Anja Ranja, Wilco Wenrich, Koen Kuijpers, Claudio Parentella, Maria Colino and many others.
The art
Melt Art
Zandvliet experimented a lot with different types of media. In 1994, for the first time, he had a solo exhibition in Galerie Slaphanger with his 'melt art'. These were art works made of melted plastic (mostly Barbie dolls) melted on wood, transformed in to a surreal three dimensional painting, finalized with aerosols.[5]
Comics
Zandvliet started his career as a cartoonist for Freelook magazine, also he published a few comic books on his own. The theme of his cartoons mostly was the street life of Rotterdam.
Painting
Zandvliet started focussing on painting in 1998. In this year he was chosen by curator Koos van Duinen to take part in art show 'De Dubbelkamer', in Schiedam. There he won the audience award and the encouragement award for young artists. He sold five of the nine exposed paintings.
In 1999 Zandvliet participated in a group exhibition called 'je weet niet wat je ziet' (you don't know what you are seeing), in the Municipal Museum of Schiedam. Here he made a mural and exposed a movie in where he plays himself as a painting freak. In 2001 Zandvliet painted, in commission of Julia Snikkers (formal director of the Artoteek Schiedam) a roll-down shutter and connected a exhibition to it in the Artoteek (place where people can rent art).
In the same year he painted a mural in Pand Paulus, an exhibition hall in Schiedam. And in 2004 mayor Scheeres of Schiedam opened the exhibition 'Salsa and Tulips'. This was a duo exhibition together with Texan artist Joan Fabian. After this Zandvliet began orientating more internationally and did exhibitions in Spain, the USA, Poland, Italy, Thailand, Iran, Russia, Portugal and Venezuela.[6]
Method
Zandvliet puts his outlines directly on the canvas, or paper. He doesn't sketch out his idea, but likes to make his work like a journey. He never knows how the final work will going to be. Lines are important for him. With the lines he expresses the feeling in the figure that he draws. The colors he uses are psychedelic and contrasting.[7]
