By Katarina Hybenova
Repeated randomness creates patterns. That’s the premise Rob de Oude derived, not from mathematical computations, but from his geometrical paintings. Rob de Oude was born and raised in the Netherlands, but art school exchange in New York spurred a set of coincidences and he eventually settled in Bushwick, where he now lives with his wife and 4-year old twins. Rob works in Ridgewood, in 17-17 Troutman building, which is also a new home to the gallery he co-runs, Parallel Art Space.
Rob has been creating his strictly geometric paintings for years, over which he has come to very interesting and always more and more sophisticated conclusions. His paintings of pleasing color schemes based on the layers of intersecting straight lines are so hypnotic, you cannot forget them for the rest of your life. Rob enjoys not only the geometric perfection he reaches thanks to the structures of rulers he builds specifically for his paintings, but also the mythical sense of a simple, perfect straight line, which doesn’t have an end nor a beginning…
Rob’s artwork has been recently exhibited in many galleries; one show frantically following the other, which frequently suggests that the galleries finally noticed how extraordinary someone’s work is. Storefront Bushwick was followed by BRIC Rotunda, ZigZag in Baltimore, Small Black Door (twice!) and Sardine.
