Tijs Dragtsma (1992) - A Boy Runs Through Light

An old man stands with his back to us, his bowler hat and cane holding him in a stillness that reads as permanent. Beside him the wall has become something else entirely, a field of fine scratches that catches and holds the light, while his own figure remains a dark, untouched silhouette against it. Within that lit field, a second shape waits. A boy runs with a kite, cast as a shadow that the light itself seems to have shaped. He is cut from the same brightness that surrounds him, a dark figure inside a field of marks rather than a figure drawn upon it. No paint, no print, no ink. The image is scratched into the surface of the acrylic glass, present whether the light is direct or soft, and the light only deepens what is already there. Seen from across a room, the work reads as a single quiet scene, a man watching something move along a wall. Up close it dissolves into a field of individual marks, each one small and deliberate, together holding the shape of a boy who is running and a kite that is still rising. The story underneath is simple and does not need to be explained. The man is the shadow, and the shadow is the man, long before the hat and the cane and the stillness. Art with Scratch has always been drawn to that kind of doubling, the self held against who it once was, the present figure standing still while an old motion keeps happening just behind him. This work continues the Art with Scratch series by Tijs Dragtsma, in which imagery is constructed through controlled surface damage rather than pigment or print. It reads differently from different angles, without ever losing the image. Light does not create the image. It sharpens it. This work is unique. "The boy keeps running. The man only learned to stand still." About Art with Scratch Art with Scratch is a body of work in which the image is not drawn, but released. Carved line by line into a deep black surface, each work emerges through countless precise scratches that catch the light and bring form out of darkness. From a distance, the image appears almost photographic. Powerful, recognisable and full of presence. Yet up close, the work dissolves into a dense field of individual marks. Fine, fragile and almost weightless. What seemed solid reveals itself as a delicate web of lines, each one a deliberate gesture, each one essential to the whole. Light does not create the image. It sharpens it. The black surface absorbs, while the scratched lines reflect. As light shifts across the surface, the image breathes. From one angle the figure stands clear and defined. From another it softens and settles back toward the darkness from which it came, without ever disappearing. Under a focused spotlight, the contrast deepens and the image takes on a sculptural, almost luminous quality. What makes this medium so compelling is its quiet tension. The act of scratching is direct and irreversible. Every line is a decision that cannot be undone. Yet the result is not harsh. It is intimate, atmospheric and alive with movement. Hardness becomes softness. Destruction becomes creation. Absence becomes presence. In works such as this portrait, the figure is never fully fixed. Through the interplay of line, light and shadow, the image shifts with perspective and atmosphere. At certain moments, the subject seems to step forward out of the black. At others, it settles back into stillness. It is within that movement, between sharpness and calm, that the work comes alive. Like all materials touched by time, the surface carries its own quiet life. Each scratch holds a moment, a breath, a gesture. Together they form not just an image, but a presence, one that continues to reveal itself with every change of light. About the Artist My name is Tijs Dragtsma, founder of TD Fine Art Studio. As an artist, I am driven by a constant desire to explore new visual languages. I do not see art as a fixed style, but as an evolving field of discovery where material, structure, light and emotion come together. My work often begins with a simple question. How can a material speak in a new way. How can hardness become intimacy. How can precision create emotion. That search lies at the heart of everything I create. Within TD Fine Art Studio, each body of work is approached as its own world, with its own logic, atmosphere and visual identity. Some works are built through rhythm, repetition and structure. Others emerge through absence, shadow, reflection or tension. What connects them is a shared commitment to originality, clarity and emotional presence. I am fascinated by contrast. Between strength and fragility. Between control and feeling. Between what is visible and what is left open to interpretation. My goal is not simply to make an image, but to create a work that holds attention, invites reflection and continues to reveal itself over time. TD Fine Art Studio is the space in which these explorations come together. It is not only a studio, but an evolving artistic universe shaped by curiosity, precision and the ambition to create work that feels distinctive, intentional and alive.

Utropspris:SEK 38,985.56

Visa alla föremål frånCatawikiellerSamtida Konst