NAME: hans meertens
BIRTH PLACE: The Netherlands
BIOGRAPHY
After attending the Faculty of Art at the York St John University, the Fontys University of Applied Sciences in Eindhoven and the Faculty of Art at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent, Hans Meertens graduated from the Utrecht School of the Arts in 2000. In that same year he was nominated for the Piet Bakker Prize, an incentive prize for young Utrecht School of the Arts graduates with outstanding talent. In the following years Meertens' artworks were exhibited in a variety of artist-run spaces and galleries. Giulio Cesare & Co Gallery in ’s-Hertogenbosch (NL) presented Meertens' first solo exhibition “Solo Inferno” in 2004, soon followed by a second solo exhibition in 2005, titled “Invocatio!”.
More recently, Meertens' artworks were on view at the Museum of Gorcum (2006), Caelum Gallery, New York (2006), Gallery Clifford, Odense and Daugård, Denmark (2007-2008) and Monkdogz Urban Art Gallery in New York (2006 -2008). An important part of his work is included in the collections of enthusiastic collectors around the world and Meertens has been commissioned by major companies such as Porsche, Nedap and Metro. After winning a commercial pitch, five young artists -among which Hans Meertens- were commissioned by Ajax Amsterdam to create a painting to be included in an exclusive charity auction to raise funds for the Johan Cruyff Foundation. From late 2007 until early 2008 an overview of Meertens' paintings and drawings were exhibited at Gallery Clifford, Odense, during his solo exhibition “Counterphobia”. Monkdogz Urban Art Gallery presented Meertens' first solo exhibition in New York in April/May 2008. This exhibition -titled “Remote Control”- featured both retrospective and new works. From In late 2008, Gallery Clifford presented "Sweet Fever"; another solo exhibition by Hans Meertens in Daugård, Denmark.
From 2001 until summer 2007, before devoting himself completely to his art, Meertens combined his work as an autonomous artist with a teaching profession in Art and Cultural Social Studies at a secundary school in Amsterdam. As a singer/songwriter (File Under Shane) Meertens independently released two critically acclaimed cd's; Soul On Fire (2006) and Trenches (2005). A comprehensive catalogue of Meertens' art will be published in 2009.
