Solo Exhibitions include (Upcoming) Hooked on Neverland, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London, UK (2023); New Swords Are Forged, Eve Leibe Gallery, London, UK (2022); Between A Rock And A Hard Place, Hans Alf Gallery, Denmark (2021); Art Rotterdam, Mondrian Fund, Concepts and Prospects, Rotterdam, Netherlands (2020).

Group Exhibitions include 'Uprising', Schloss Görne, Berlin, Germany (2022); In Momentum, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London (2021); Richard Waar, Pictura, Dordrecht, Netherlands (2021); Last Days Of Summer, Eve Leibe Gallery, Milan, Italy (2021); Enter Art Fair, Hans Alf Gallery, Kobenhavn, Denmark (2021); CAVE CANEM, Eve Leibe Gallery, London, UK (2021);WATCHLIST, Galerie Droste, Wuppertal, Germany (2020);OUTBREAK, curated by Wobby.Club, De Pont Museum, Tillburg, Netherlands (2020); Wunderwall, Plue-One Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium (2020); Gallery Sofie Van de Velde, Antwerp, Belgium (2020); To Paint Is To Love Again, curated by Olivier Zahm, Nino Mier Gallery, West Hollywood, California (2020); Late Night Pasta, Naarden, Allard Wildenberg Projects, Naarden, Netherlands (2019) (duo show); Universes Show 2, curated by Sasha Bogojev, The Garage Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2019);My Biggest Small, Showhouse JayJay, Antwerp, Belgium (2019); Velvet Ropes, GIFC, Antwerp, Belgium (2019). 

Highlights and Collections

In 2022 Ralf Kokke was a finalist for The Royal Award for Modern Painting – the most prestigious painting prize in the Netherlands. In addition, in 2020 Kokke was awarded a Grant from the Dordrechts Museum, Dordrecht, Netherlands. Kokke has also received a number of residences including a Residency at Van Gogh Huis, Zundert, Netherlands in 2020. His works can be found in important private and public collections which include Dordrecht Museum collection and Van Gogh Huis collection.

Take, for instance, the painting Still Streams and Lush Flowers which depicts a large, undulating figure and a tiger lying on opposite banks of a river. The setting is idyllic: each bank is covered with long verdant grass and pink flowers while the bright colour tones evoke a sunny day. The painting, as with the others in the exhibition, is striking for the flatness of the composition and the rough texture of the chalk, which as Kokke notes creates a raw ‘almost primitive feel’ similar to cave paintings. But the impression of simplicity or serenity may be misleading: the tiger’s eye glints green while the figure’s body is almost insect-like with three eyes and multiple legs. Is this a vision of a utopia? Or two predators conspiring? 

‘In my work, eyes are always a symbol to watch out for something or to pay attention,’ explains Kokke, ‘while multiple features or limbs create a sense of movement or speed.’ In Friendly Foreshadows, we are once again presented with an ambiguous interaction in which a stag looks up at a snake – a symbol of danger and temptation but also femininity and a creative life force – curled around a tree. Here, the stag’s stuttered eyes and fifth leg indicate the shadow movement past or perhaps to come. Did the snake strike at its back or warn of some other threat out of the frame of the painting? As with all of his works, Kokke allows the viewer the freedom to interpret the image or rather to see it, simultaneously, from multiple perspectives.