Biography of Frans Franciscus

Frans Franciscus (27 April 1959, Utrecht) studied at the Utrecht School of Art. He lives and works in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. In addition to paintings his work includes sculptures and films. Since 2012 Franciscus created under the name Franciscus & Franciscus together with spous Rienus Gündel Franciscus a growing series digital portraits named “Digital studies after Memling”.  There have been exhibitions by Franciscus and by Franciscus & Franciscus in galleries, artfairs and museums in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Czech Republic, Jordan, Russia, Spain, Swiss, South Africa, U. K. and U.S.A.

The works of F. Franciscus present an exhibition highlighting modern art mostly inspired by classic European paintings often with a biblical background. The artist’s sources of inspiration include pieces by painters like Hendrick ter Brugghen, Caravaggio and Bronzino. He combines or re-arranges compositions of old masters depicting biblical stories in an up-to-date and idiosyncratic fashion. His themes are put in a modern context in an intelligent way, resulting in humorous and appealing art that can sometimes shock the viewer as well. Franciscus´paintwork is in no case meant to insult but allways tries to create space for a broader view on human kind.