Cornelis Morales, Dutch artist, born in Zaire in 1973. Lives near The Hague, NL.
Creator of Europe’s largest figurative intaglio metal engravings. Obsessed with creativity and materiality of making. My work is experimental and is the first to hold the illusion of abstraction.
preparing the Goliath etching press used for ultra large works. Grafische Werkplaats, The Hague, NL.
Self-taught – educated by life-long hunger for learning by experiments. I nurture a continuous cycle of one precious failure after the other, year after year, and have built my own unique position in the art space. I now master etchings and engravings.
Etchings and engravings allow for an infinite amount of detail compared to oil paintings- and combined with the unprecedented size of my works the viewer could be confused. So I reverse the classical technique of ‘illusion of detail’ into ‘illusion of abstraction’ and ink my plates free-hand à la poupée to create art that both holds the initial pleasure of looking at a good painting; and on second, closer look reveals that infinite engraving detail underneath.
I connect the traditional art forms and master craftsmanship of etching and engravings with innovative technology such as Artificial Intelligence, CNC robotics and imaging software. In this triangle my contribution is the deep understanding and internalizing of both extremes and to use my artistic expression to create new works that could not have been made before. This work is experimental and pioneering.
pulling the ”Carceri” print from the small workshop press
Member of:
Dutch National Association of Professional Artists
Regional associations of professional artistis ArtiBrak and Voorschotense Kunst Kring, with regular expositions
