Cas van Deurssen – CRIMP / PINCH / POCKET

About this activity.

From 1 June to 24 August 2025, Afslag BLV presents a solo exhibition by visual artist Cas van Deurssen (1994). The exhibition features a selection of recent paintings, spatial works and objects in which material, form and visual language meet in unexpected ways.

In his work, Van Deurssen examines social behaviour and structures – often with a slightly critical or playful undertone. Contrasts such as craftsmanship and mass production, nostalgia and technological progress, the everyday versus the theatrical are central.

Cas van Deurssen is inspired by observations of daily routines, street scenes, spontaneous encounters and the way people orient themselves in their environment – ​​through symbols, colour codes and habits. A bike ride, a market stall or an everyday object can be the starting point for new work for him. By distancing himself from the familiar context and questioning it, compositions are created in which objects and materials speak a language other than that of utility or function.

The artist often works with everyday materials and industrial components such as PVC, DIY store objects and found objects. He rearranges them into works in which sculpture, installation and design intersect. These objects give the impression of functioning – they seem to vibrate, rotate or light up – but the promise of functionality is never fulfilled. This creates a subtle interplay between expectation and reality, between recognition and alienation. Seemingly logical structures turn out on closer inspection to be layered, poetic or ironic in nature. This tension forms the core of Van Deurssen's work.

About the artist:

Visual artist Cas van Deurssen (Deurne, 1994) graduated from the Minerva Academy in Groningen in 2020. Before that, he studied at the AKV Sint Joost art academy in Den Bosch and took a minor at the Weißensee Kunsthochschule in Berlin. In 2020, he won the Buning Brongers Prize, a biennial Dutch art prize for young visual artists. Van Deurssen previously exhibited at Het HEM in Zaandam, at Big Art in Amsterdam and in early 2024 at Prospects during ART Rotterdam, an initiative of the Mondriaan Fund that shows work by artists who received an Artist Start grant two years earlier.

Cas van Deurssen lives and works in Groningen.

Museum Belvédère.

Location.

Afslag BLV
Minckelersstraat 11
8442 CE Heerenveen
www.museumbelvedere.nl/nl/