Koos Breen is an interdisciplinary designer, art director and artist based in The Hague (NL). He produces work in graphics, objects, and spatial installations, both by commission and autonomously.
 
 

DETAILS


hello@koosbreen.com
+31(0)645782205

Atelier Koos Breen

Withuysstraat 4Z
2523 GW, The Hague
The Netherlands


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Koos Breen stretches frontiers of disciplines and pushes them to edgy limits. He fluently shifts between being an art director, designer, and artist: continuously expanding his expertise and interests while challenging himself as much as the possible boundaries. In the same vein, Koos hardly distinguishes between autonomous works and commissioned projects: different worlds blend as he imagines how objects and forms could function within divergent disciplines, scenes, and environments.


Koos is especially interested in what an image is, does, is perceived as, and could represent – both online and offline. Here, his graphic design background comes into play. He explores the interplay between two- and three-dimensionality and experiments with scales and perceptions, usually through photographic means in which dimensions and disciplines blur. He approaches design in the broadest sense of the term, questioning the hierarchy between physical objects and photographic representation.


Koos made paper look like marble, designed exhibitions that act like stages, turned haircuts into carpets, and created catalogues that lend their appearance from clutches. This shows how he has been able to bring different worlds together. He integrates his interests in perception and materiality into his commissioned assignments; often uses prefab materials out of the context of their original purpose; and plays with perspectives and expectations, creating (material) illusions and combining elements from worlds that seemingly do not fit together.


Koos has been commissioned by royals and rappers as much as fashion designers and cultural institutions. Often his projects and research are executed in close collaboration with others: he is part of Morph.love collective and often works together with other artists, photographers, creative coders, architects and designers. In all cases, he questions the possibilities and affordances of materials – and tries to push beyond their expected applications and the given design commission. Hence, the outcomes could be graphics, publications, and books as much as scenography, exhibitions, installations, unidentified design objects, or art works. In his versatile practice Koos Breen applies a content-driven, conceptual yet associative approach in which one project naturally leads to the next, as his practice evolves continuously.


Koos was recently guest tutor at HfG Karlsruhe's Communication Design Department in Germany and is now available for other teaching jobs.


Koos is a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale.




EXHIBITIONS


2023
Hybrid Habitability

Etage Projects


Copenhagen, Denmark

Clair-Obscur

Group Exhibition with Morph.Love Members


Les Moulins, France

Afterparty

Alcova Project Space


Milan, Italy

2022
Royal Encounters

Escher in het Paleis


The Hague

2021
It Enters Into What We Become

by Morph.Love, @Het Nieuwe Instituut
See Exhibition →


Rotterdam, The Netherlands

The Architecture of Staged Realities

@ Het Nieuwe Instituut
See Exhibition →


Rotterdam, The Netherlands

ExtraPlaats ExtraWerk
@ Plaatsmaken
Arnhem, The Netherlands

Temporary House of Home

@ Het Nieuwe Instituut
See Exhibition →


Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Colors, Etc.
@ Tripostale
Lille, France

2020
JOIN Collective Clothes
@ Das Leben Am Haverkamp
The Hague, The Netherlands

Kleureyck
@ Design Museum Ghent
Ghent, Belgium

2019
We couldn't find the door
by Morph.Love, @ Fey Arts
Villecien, France

Extended Views: From Dusk to Dawn
by Morph.Love, @ K11 Art Foundation
Guangzhou, China

Dissolving Views
by Morph.Love, @ Alcova
Milan, Italy

Palace of Play
by Morph.Love
Brussels, Belgium

The Librarian Room
@ Madrid Design Festival
Madrid, Spain

2018
Ready, Set, Go!
by Better Known As @ Alcova
Milano, Italy

2017
How & Wow
by Crafts Council NL @ Dutch Design Week
Eindhoven, The Netherlands

tE 12 – Korean Society of Typography
@ Doosung Paper Gallery
Seoul, Korea

Concrete Playground
@ Pip Expo
The Hague, the Netherlands

2016
RESET
by Royal Academy of Art, The Hague @ Salone del Mobile
Milan, Italy

International Poster Exhibition
@ Graphic Design Festival Scotland
Glasgow, Scotland

2015
Territories 2.0
@ Stroom Den Haag
The Hague, the Netherlands

Riso Club
@ Quartair Contemporary Art Initiatives
The Hague, the Netherlands

2014
Graphos – Uitgelicht
@ Kunsthal Boschveld
Den Bosch, the Netherlands

Arcadia – The Katalog
@ TDC Triskel
Cork, Ireland




© Koos Breen, 2013–2023. All Rights Reserved – This website is designed and coded by Sepus Noordmans and Vera van de Seyp, art directed by Koos Breen and made possible by the generous support of Stroom Den Haag

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