AS FAR AS I KNOW

The installation, titled ''As far as I Know,'' involves 92 paintings, all sized 65 x 50 cm. The theme of this installation is the origins of Caja Boogers, who has an Indonesian mother and a Dutch father, and thus grew up between two cultures. With this work, Boogers personally addresses the theme of immigration and the mixing of cultures, building on his installation Retelling, which was shown at Art Rotterdam and was acquired by Museum Voorlinden in Wassenaar.

As a visual starting point, Boogers has selected six black-and-white photographs from family albums of relatives he hardly knew. Details from these photographs form the subjects of the individual paintings. By isolating details, repeating them and working them out in different colours, a dynamic, visual contemplation of his background emerges, sharing his experience of growing up between two cultures. His latest work combines a painterly urge to comprehend an image through repetitive painting with a deep personal nostalgia that persists within the Indo-Dutch community. It''s a collective sentiment over a bygone era, or even a non-existent era, that''s ultimately embedded in the artist''s upbringing.

''(...) it is a touching idea that Caja Boogers has decided that the paintings in ''As far as I know,'' do not have to stay together. After the exhibition at Galerie Gerhard Hofland, the works will spread out across the globe. From then on, every viewer or buyer will know that she or he is seeing only onepart of the original work of art. ''As far as I know,'' will itself become a memory.'' - Hans den Hartog Jager

Caja Boogers (Vlaardingen, 2001) is a Dutch painter. Before graduating from the Utrecht School of the Arts, he participated in the exhibition A Touch of Light (April 23-September 17, 2023) at Museum Kranenburgh in Bergen. Since graduating in 2023, he has been included in various exhibitions and collections such as Museum Voorlinden, Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, DE.GROEN Fine Art Collection, AkzoNobel Art Foundation and FENIX collection. He will continue his trajectory with a two-year residency at De Ateliers in Amsterdam. Since 2023, the artist is represented by Galerie Gerhard Hofland. ''As far as I know,'' is his first solo exhibition at the gallery.