Inner Wilderness - Bob Mollema

The Bossche gallery Ruby Soho presents Inner Wilderness by Utrecht-based artist Bob Mollema. In the exhibition, Bob Mollema shows a series of new drawings and oil paintings in which he explores the foundation of his work. In Inner Wilderness, Mollema presents his striking characters, fabulous animals, flora, fauna and elusive texts in intriguing works on paper and canvas.

Mollema’s work is sincere and raw, made with chalk, pencil or oil paint. The chance, margin of error and analogue aspect are in keeping with his quest for purity and authenticity. In his artistic practice, he integrates elements from mythology and popular culture, combining the everyday with the inexplicable. In doing so, Mollema does not exclude any medium and his work finds its way into record covers, murals, concerts, publications, skateboards and clothing, among others.

Mollema himself says of his work, “In my work, I try to be guided by mythological motifs to get closer to my inner wilderness. I feel that if I let that wilderness speak to me when I look at the world with honest and non-conformist eyes. A personal fight against the smoothing uniformity that devours the texture and beauty of difference. In my work, I am not guided by an intended end result, but try to stay as close as possible to my natural signature so that the aesthetic is pure, honest, naive and unblemished.”

Mollema’s work can be seen daily in magazines such as National Geographic, de Volkskrant and Vrij Nederland or, on the contrary, at De Bijenkorf, clothing by fashion brand Volcom or on posters at pop temple Paradiso. Nurtured with purity and authenticity, Inner Wilderness is an act of rebellion against the uniformity that is slowly but surely devouring the world.