Leonard van Munster

Leonard van Munster (born February 1972, Zwolle) is a Dutch contemporary artist making Site-specific and Subject-specific work.

He studied from 1992 to 1996 at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam.

This included an exchange programme to Parsons School of Art and Cooper Union in New York.

Van Munster's installations are to be found mostly in public spaces, where the surroundings play an important role in the work

and how it is experienced.

Sometimes, he chooses a location that suits an already made sketch, and sometimes he makes a work especially for a specific location.

Although his works at first glance have a cheery or boyish look about them, there is a more sensitive idea at their basis.

Recurrent underlying themes are desire, homesickness and sentiment: a frozen moment of happiness or a childhood memory.

The sometimes even comical appearance of his work has the effect of a layer of pink sugar frosting.

This can be witnessed in his Fata Morgana [Under heaven 02], built under the A10 highway in Amsterdam.

An oasis under the highway, where palm trees, banana trees and flowers grow and a waterfall splashes down off some rocks.

The sun appears always to be shining.

All this is made of plastic and surrounded by metres-high steel fencing.

He also built a tree, complete with tree-house, on the roof

of the 50 metres high Stedelijk Museum when it was housed in the Post CS building in Amsterdam [Under heaven 01] and in the Green Heart’ area of the Netherlands, he floated a log with, on it, a fox with a white flag in his paws.

The often large objects he makes in public spaces can usually be viewed only for a short while.

Take for instance, the recently completed work he made especially for the ‘World of Witte de With’ Festival: an island with a metropolitan structure in the middle of the pond between the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum and the Kunsthal in Rotterdam.

At the moment, Leonard van Munster is working on several projects including an installation commissioned by the Stadsschouwburg (Metropolitan Theatre) of Amsterdam, ‘The dancing White Man’.

Dept was an art,- and design,- collective from 1996 till 2001.

Existing out of P. du Bois Reymond, M. Klaverstein and L. van Munster.

DEPT created graphic design, installations and video works.

They created art installations combining electronic and traditional media, and created large scale media-environments for art performances and large club events.

During this time, he was commissioned in 2004, to create a piece for the toilets of cultural centrum the Balie in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

The result was Private Room 02, Talking toilets (4) The toilets are equipped with all sorts of sensors.

Not only talking to the visitor about how to behave, but also mixing up facts found on Google.

The dept site is incorporated in Graphic Design Museum Breda in 2008.