JON SARKIN (1953 – 2024)
After suffering a severe stroke in 1989, this American ex-chiropractor found his true calling as an artist. Driven by an obsessive creativity, Sarkin compulsively produces images that seem to come straight from his subconscious. His work, rooted in the flourishing landscape of Cape Anne, Massachusetts, is now making the crossing to Rotterdam – a connection between two port cities.

JACQUELINE LOEVE (1968)
Affiliated with Galerie Atelier Herenplaats since 1999, Jacqueline takes us to strange planets full of extraterrestrial beings. Her self-invented comic strips form the basis for large-scale paintings, complete with speech bubbles in her own created language. Jacqueline shows us fragments of a larger, mysterious story.

CARLOS JAVIER GARCÍA HUERGO (1969)
In his art, this Cuban mathematician combines the reality of mathematics with personal imagery. On recycled materials – cardboard, vinyl sleeves, old newspapers – he draws with pastel colours a hybrid world full of creatures that live in his consciousness. His own numerical alphabet and algorithms form stories about life.

TOBIAS TEBBE (1980)
Driven by an unstoppable urge to draw since childhood, this Arnhem-based artist creates alternative world maps. In his “Dutch Democratic Republic”, with Baarle as its capital and “Checkpoint Charles” as its border crossing, historical figures mingle with monsters, elves and family members. A mirror tent full of laughing mirrors in which boundaries – geographical and personal – are explored.

These four artists have one thing in common: they cannot help but create their own worlds. Driven by something stronger than themselves, they each build their own universe. They show us how multifaceted apparent reality can be. And no matter how deeply personal their worlds are, recognition is never far away.