M A Z E DE B O E R
Born in Amsterdam (1976) and studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten/Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.
As a multidisciplinary artist, de Boer works with sculpture, installation, painting, film/video, photography and music/sound in more than one hundred and fifty solo and group exhibitions in museums, galleries, biennales, public spaces and festivals around the world. As a scenographer, he made more than fifty set/ light/ video designs on location and for theaters in the Netherlands, China, Germany and Belgium.
As a board member, curator, jury member, teacher and designer, he participated in numerous cultural institutions, events, exhibitions and academies (BA and MA).
His work often stems from the historical background, social context of the location or the theme of the exhibition. De Boer’s installations are called site-specific, but he himself sees them as site-responsive. Although the installation originates in a specific location, De Boer aims to create an autonomous work that also retains its power in a different (new) location.
De Boer creates his artworks from a conceptual perspective, but the result is always visually appealing, playful and accessible. They become, as it were, conceptual attractions.
We tend to supplement the visible image with images we know. In de Boer’s work he tries to make the viewer aware of this unconscious habit of filling in missing details.

Text and images courtesy of the artist