About the artist: Paulus Maassen (Amsterdam, 1970) is a visual artist based in Amsterdam. He studied at the AKI Enschede and the Dutch Art Institute, Enschede (Master, 1998). His work has been shown in various exhibitions in the Netherlands. He is currently developing Loop, a series of large-scale painted constructions.
Paulus Maassen (Amsterdam, 1970) produces large-scale painted constructions that occupy the boundary between painting and sculpture. Working on layered melamine board at approximately two meters square, he builds forms that project physically from the wall — assembled from stacked and overlapping panels, then unified through the application of paint. The work resists straightforward categorisation, operating simultaneously as painted surface, constructed object, and spatial intervention. The closed circuit is the governing form of his current practice — a loop of discrete painted segments enclosing a central void. At this scale the negative space carries genuine spatial weight, functioning less as compositional element than as threshold: a space the viewer enters into relationship with rather than simply observes. The work addresses the body directly. Paint is applied in thick, directional passages that read as both mark and material fact. The construction logic remains visible throughout — joints, overlaps, layered edges — so that the process of making is embedded in the finished object rather than concealed by it. Surface and structure are inseparable. Colour functions as an organising principle within each work, with distinct internal palettes that move through carefully considered tonal relationships. Across the series, the works share a formal language while maintaining individual character.