One of the most frequently asked questions we receive from visitors and followers is “What happens after someone graduates IBB?”. Well, the short answer is that they continue pursuing their artistic careers. Most of our alumni continue their creative studies abroad, at the art academy. This means that almost every year we have some alumni graduating. This year we are proud to announce that we’ve had three!

Today we’d like to introduce you all to Leomar, Chiou, and Taima. Three incredibly talented people who after getting accepted into their chosen studies packed their bags, said their goodbyes, and moved to the Netherlands.

Chiou Mian Lin | HKU (Utrecht) – Fine Art

Chiou has always been a hard worker, fascinated by how things work and come together. During her time at IBB they figured out many things about life, their peers, and especially themselves, a process we are proud to see continued during her studies abroad.

Below is a text by Milou Terpstra regarding Chiou’s work.

“Chiou Mian Lin is fascinated by texture and sees beautiful aesthetics in irregular patterns. Looking at these patterns can be uncomfortable for people, which is called trypophobia, or the fear of clusters of small holes or bumps. But Lin experiences the opposite, she likes looking at and touching the patterns. Taking trypophobia as a starting point, she investigates this uncanny, uncomfortable, and uncertain feeling in relation to the normality that is deemed acceptable.

The stillness of the sculptures is contrasted by a little cat with angry eyebrows and a fierce tail. Standing against the installation, maybe trying to push it away or move it to a better spot, the cat brings a certain playfulness to the installation. It might be mimicking the artistic process of Lin, in which experiments with materiality are central.

The sculptures, placed together in three installations, bring corals or anemones to mind. Lin calls them creatures, or beings, that are just here, for some reason. They might interact with each other; they might be silent. They just exist – sitting, standing, laying in their constructed landscapes, inviting the public to come closer, bend down, look at them. If you’re not afraid of holes, that is.”

Milou Terpstra’s words make you curious to see Chiou’s work, we know. Here are a few images provided by Chiou from their graduation piece.

Leomar Imperator | WDKA (Rotterdam) – Fine Art

Leomar is from Curaçao, where they lived and studied for the largest part of their life. They have a background in construction, and after obtaining their diploma in carpentry they decided to continue expanding their creative skillset at the IBB. Currently, Leomar is residing in the Netherlands, where this year they finished their bachelor’s degree in Fine Art, at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam, where they graduated with honors.

“My practice focuses mainly on painting, performance and installations, though more often than not I engage in other media, such as video, sculpting, photoshop, and most recently writing. Whatever topic that I’m working with at a given moment determines the shape that that particular work will take. Topics that range between exploring; my childhood, the politics that I grew up in, and understanding my cultural heritage.”

Leomar is not new to using their imagination. As a child, they would escape into their own world, which Leomar created out of all the media that they consumed while growing up. Leomar explains that this act of piecing together a story out of many different sources inadvertently found its way into their practice. Not surprisingly, their journey at the art academy was most definitely one of self-discovery. Diving into, amongst other things, culture and divination, for his graduation assignment he decided to create his own world.

Click here to read his final presentation and learn more about the ‘Story of the Four’, magical minerals, and everything else that you can find on Mireali, a supernatural island on Bèrdah.

Taima Raphaela | WDKA (Rotterdam) – Illustration

Taima is an illustrating magician, continuously exploring life’s storylines, often aided by their studies of animals. For their final assignment at the art academy they decided to create a graphic novel, mainly focused on the visual storytelling aspect.

“The idea was to give the reader various interpretations of what they are seeing/reading. That way they can come up with their own storyline through the expressions, descriptive sounds, and other visual hints inserted into the novel.”

‘Burnt Fur’ is a graphic novel for people of all ages, mainly focused on visual storytelling. In this tale of curiosity, friendship and adventure, Taima tells us the story of a special wolf, who for being different from those around him ends up experiencing life in a rather peculiar way.

To experience the first part of this story and dive into the concepts behind the graphic novel be sure to click here (big PDF warning).

We hope you’ve enjoyed reading about Chiou, Leomar and Taima. We can’t wait to see what they come up with next!

Thanks for reading. Until next time. Stay safe!

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