Rop van Mierlo is best known for his picture book ‘Wild Animals’, which won a Dutch Design Award in 2011.
Van Mierlo is intrigued by the human need to control nature. Using a wet-on-wet technique, he paints animals that he can’t control. He studied at Design Academy Eindhoven and graduated cum laude in 2008.

He works with various mediums but starts his process mostly with drawings or paintings.
Control – or the absence of it – is an important part of his work.

His books are sold in MoMA in New York, Design Museum London and (late) Colette in Paris, amongst others.
Van Mierlo has collaborated on projects with Hermès, Marni, Head Porter and Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.

For his Wild Animals project, Van Mierlo experiments with his paintings in new techniques and materials. The first result is a Panda rug, handtufted in collaboration with TextielLab (which is specialised in textile research and production) at the TextielMuseum, located in a former textile factory in Tilburg, The Netherlands.

coming soon: BENCH PLAYERS

Bench Players is the second release of the Wild Animals label. Rop uses the Alla Prima (' wet-on-wet') technique, which means working on a painting while it is still wet. Using this technique allows him to paint without control. The human urge to control nature fascinates Rop, and the lack of this control is an important part of his work. 

His first project is called ‘Tiger Merch’: 12 products all based upon the tiger, the first ever painting of the ‘wild animals’ series.

‘Tiger Merch’ plays with the idea of ‘artist merchandise’, the questionable concept of commercializing the work of artists after their passing. Van Mierlo finds it fascinating how the heartfelt and sincere work of artists, often driven by poverty, is put in stark contrast to the commercialization of their work after their passing.

With ‘Tiger Merch’ he addresses this contrast, by creating his own merchandise while he is still alive.
This release, looking like mass-produced merchandise on first sight, consists of undomesticated and qualitatively products made in limited editions to unique items.

The exposition 'Wild Animals - Bench Players’ + a selection of Rop van Mierlo's original paintings can be seen from December 11th - December 20th 2020 from 11-17 hr. Location: Galerie Christian Ouwens, Netherlands

Christian Ouwens, Eendrachtsweg 20, 3012 LB Rotterdam

www.christianouwens.nl , www.wild-animals.nl 

Instagram:@w.i.l.d.a.n.i.m.a.l.s