Diederick Kraaijeveld: ´It is my goal to create highly desirable things out of materials people have thrown away absentmindedly´

Diederick Kraaijeveld was born in 1963 in The Hague, The Netherlands. He got his doctoral degree in History at Leiden University (and studied Creative Writing at University of Texas on a scholarschip). He became a professional newspaper journalist at the beginning of the nineties. For the last few years as a journalist he has been an award winning investigative reporter for the leading Dutch TV-channel RTL4. Kraaijeveld received the 2004 award VVOJ (Association for Investigative Journalism The Netherlands and Belgium) for his groundbreaking stories on fraude in the housing of the Board of Directors of the Dutch Social Security system. He turned into being a professional artist in 2007.

Kraaijeveld is a self taught artist/sculptor. For a large part of his life he has been collecting things and made art out of that. For years he has been collecting Chinese firecrackers after New Years-eve events in Holland: he would turn the different colourful firecracker-papers into even more colourful collages which he gave away to friends. Found packets of cigarettes (especially the packets of Gauloises he found during travels into France) were turned into monumental works of art. For the last years before starting Oudhout, Kraaijeveld has been sculpting found wooden logs at the chateau of his aunt Mizou near Aix en Provence (south of France). He would only give away the things he made…

His first endeavours in Oudhout (literally Old Wood) were given away too: two Citroen DS’s now hang on the wall of two of his dear friends who share a passion for that French car. Kraaijeveld is more into American muscle cars: his first piece of art in Oudhout was a Mustang 1966, once the proud wheels of the artist himself…Oudhout’s cars and other icons are made of reclaimed wood Kraaijeveld finds during his travels and daytrips in Holland and abroad. No dumpster in front of old buildings is safe for Oudhout, there is no beach (whether along the North Sea, the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean or the Pacific) uncombed…
Kraaijeveld always brings an extra bag on his travels: he imported a piece of a fishingboat he found on the Mombasa Kenya beach and recently came home with an antique horsecart-wheel from Turkey. Oudhout searches for painted wooden planks and floorings in old mansions in the inner cities of Holland and centuries old farmhouses in the more rural areas. During renovation the artefacts are thrown into metal dumpsters, and Oudhout has an eye for those things: old green, yellow and red flooring from the days Rembrandt was still alive finds its way to his warehouse in Hilversum (just outside Amsterdam). Because Oudhout is becoming well known in Holland, he sometimes gets tipped when antique planks are being removed from old buildings. He was given an antique piano after appearing on Dutch television. He will use the wood in 2009 for a project.

Every Saturday Oudhout is allowed to roam the premises of one of Hollands leading recyclers to pick out the best old wood from the heaps of garbage. He has an arrangement with the firm it only dumps the nice old wood, if Oudhout is present. To make his art – not only cars, but also icons like tennis shoes, a coffee cup or a ketchup bottled or monumental portraits– Oudhout uses different types of saws. Every piece of his assemblages/collages is genuine colored vintage wood. No paint is used, not even a driblet. There is no way to say how long it takes to make his art: it can take weeks or much longer, depending on the availability of wood, inspiration and complexity of the piece….Because a piece can only really be judged when it is finished, not all his work finds its way out of his atelier in an old schoolhouse…

Kraaijevelds goal is to create desirable things out of things that people have thrown away thoughtlessly. It is the thought that objects of great desire are created out of materials that were thought to be worthless, that inspires Diederick Kraaijeveld each and every time to sculpt his pieces of art.

Oudhouts life and work has been featured in leading Dutch magazines (Elsevier, Seasons, Tableau a.o.), in American Magazines (Autoaficionado, Hot Rod Magazine (Januari 2009)) and the leading UK vintage car magazine Octane (May 2008) His art has found its way to private collectors in Holland and abroad (New York, Los Angeles, London, UK, Frankfurt Germany and Sao Paulo Brazil) and in corporate collections (American Express, Audi, Biomet, Heinz Corporation, Pacific Tank Lines, to name a few). Oudhout sometimes works on commission…His work has been featured in galleries in Carmel CA, New York NY, London UK, Basel Swi, Moscow Ru , Dubai UAE and Amsterdam Holland. Oudhout was finalist of the 2008 Nike Art of Football Competition and his work was presented in Basel Switserland. His Barack Obama portrait was shown at the Manifest Hope gallery in Denver during the Democratic Convention there. There will be a solo exposition with new work in his London Gallery (Plus One gallery) in June 2009. There is a chance new work will also be shown at Art Dubai in March 2009 (details will follow shortly)