Performer, photographer, and painter, Teun Hocks plays the role of “an innocent Everyman in an always strange and often funny world,” as Janet Koplos recently noted. In scenes that range from burlesque to tragicomic, his lonely Buster Keaton–like persona perseveres through odd and unforgiving environments, struggling to find stable ground in an unstable, often absurd universe. Life’s complications and challenges take the form of impossible Rube Goldbergian contraptions fraught with psychological implications. Each engaging image captures one moment of an implied narrative, triggering inevitable questions about how the protagonist ever got himself into such a fix and what in the world will happen next. Teun Hocks starts by sketching various one-man stories, then poses himself in a carefully plotted setup against his own painted backdrop. After hotographing the scene, he paints in oil on top of the resulting oversize gelatin silver print. The wit, elaborate technique, and rich colors of his images combine to form an irrepressibly original oeuvre. In addition to his painted photographs, the book includes drawings, Polaroids, and studio shots, which illuminate his creative process. Though Teun Hocks is widely known and shown around the world, this will be the first English-language volume devoted to the artist.

Click here to view the Artinfo.com interview with Teun Hocks.

“Hocks is the master of the short story compressed into a single image.”—Janet Koplos

Teun Hocks was made possible with generous support from The Netherland-America Foundation and the Mondriaan Foundation, Amsterdam.