Wouter Paijmans

Coming from Loon op Zand, a place in The Netherlands known for its textile and leather industry, Wouter Paijmans discovered the haberdashery (buttons, zippers, needles), in his aunt’s archive, who works as a seamstress for a Dutch leather goods company and sparked his interest in working with leather. After spending years creating so-called ‘confection paintings’ – endless copies of his own original work – and in a quest for more freedom and less boredom in the production of his work, the artist also came across so-called samplers: little embroideries made as a test and signpost of one's qualities in needlework. He uses these samplers, that he finds in his own family archive or regional companies, not as blueprints for endless copies, but as starting points to build on. Together, the works form a narrative of the artist's process and improvement, and lead back to Paijman's original area of interest: efficiency in the production of art.