johan van dreven

Johan van Dreven began his artistic journey through experimentation with analog photography, working across a range of materials including baryta paper, canvas, acrylic, metal, glass, epoxy, polystyrene, and dibond. A drawing teacher in Zwolle encouraged him during his teenage years, when he developed a love for surreal landscapes and showed talent in photography and abstract work. After turning away from art in his youth, he returned to analog photography and the darkroom, eventually transitioning to digital art as technology evolved.

Since 2018, van Dreven has worked on a series titled "Nude, not naked," using the female body as a canvas for digital creations that explore expression, emotion, shape, and color rather than sensuality. Beginning in mid-2023, he returned to abstract work, drawing inspiration from the methods and approaches of Dalí, Munch, Hundertwasser, and Mondrian. His current practice works with the three primary colors plus white and black, using shapes and lines as foundations, with silhouettes drawn from his archive of dancers and nudes. The lines represent individual lifelines—rarely straight, often bent and twisting—while planes represent life events and silhouettes embody the strength to endure.

Van Dreven's work has been exhibited at Affordable Art fairs in Amsterdam, Brussels, Art Basel, London, and Frankfurt, as well as in Hilton hotels across Europe and Beijing. His pieces have also been shown in a small museum in Italy, the museum in Huizen, galleries throughout the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, and Albania, and at the Atelierroute in Huizen.