Joep van Lieshout was born in 1963 and grew up in the Dutch province of North Brabant. He moved to Rotterdam in the 1980s and went to art school here. Ever since, Rotterdam has been his city; he just loves it. In the 1990s, he founded his company Atelier van Lieshout and, in 2001, he established the cultural free state of AVL Ville. Today, Joep works at a large studio called Brutus, located in the old harbour area of Rotterdam. That is where he has enough space to create large pieces of experimental art. Joep calls it an ‘artist-driven playground’.

Sometimes, Joep’s works lean towards fine art. At other times, they’re more like works of design or architecture. But every work serves as a light-hearted comment on society. Joep and his art aim to make us think about systems, power, independence, life, sex and death.

Joep’s art can be found all over the world: from the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam to MOMA in New York. In addition to creating art, Joep is involved in displaying art in public spaces. There are many such artworks in Rotterdam.