About
Leon Stoffelen (Woodley, UK, 1992) depicts a reality as on a computer monitor. His is a constructed reality - often fragmentary, from daring perspectives, through a detached blue filter - derived from a variety of visual sources. Gay Chatroom decors and (pornographic) internet images may serve as inspiration, or Romantic paintings. The aim: to explore the queer identity. Growing up gay in a small town, Leon found two ostensibly contrasting escapes from the oppressive reality: nature and the internet. Both play a significant role in his work, which also plays with expectations, clichés and authenticity.
Stoffelen reworks imagery from these diverse simulations, isolating moments of unexpected tenderness and ephemeral connection. His work presents a series of fragmented yet tender moments, unfolding in a dreamlike, soft palette. Figures appear and dissolve, their interactions hovering between the staged and the spontaneous, the idealized and the corporeal. Set against paradisiacal backdrops - lush forests, untouched beaches, radiant sunsets - these fleeting exchanges evoke both intimacy and dislocation. Stoffelen’s work suggests an alternative visual language for queer intimacy - one that sidesteps both mainstream representation and overt eroticism. It reflects on the role of online spaces as sites of both escapism and self-discovery, revealing how queerness fosters an exalted, virtual sense of longing.
Exhibitions
7 mar - 4 may 2025 The Sexshop Art Show, No Limits Art Castle, Amsterdam (group)
16 feb - 9 jun 2025 Reality Check, Museum More, Gorssel (group)
11 oct 2024 - 9 mar 2025 Queer Horizons, Stedelijk Museum Schiedam (group)
2024 New Perspectives, Galerie Helder, The Hague (group)
2024 Groot Rotterdams Atelier Weekend, The Crooked Studio, Rotterdam (group)
2024 Open Studio, The Crooked Studio, Rotterdam (group)
2024 PROSPECTS, Art Rotterdam (group)
2023 Hazy Horizons, Kunstliefde, Utrecht (group)
2023 FOMONO, Hinterconti, Hamburg, Germany (group)
2023 Life Potential, Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam (group) - organiser/curator/artist
2023 MAN, Cultureel Centrum Spectrum, Schijndel (group)
2022 Queer Ontology, Willem Twee Kunstruimte, 'S Hertogenbosch (duo with Leo Maher)
2021 Garden of Earthly Delights, Drift, Breda (group)
2020 Synthetic Soft, Projectspace Lokaal, Utrecht (duo with Ersin Eken)
2020 It’s Better to Rot Than to Fade Away, Porjectspace Lokaal, Utrecht (group)
2019 Buying Time (De Belofte 14), Kunstliefde, Utrecht (group)
2019 Screening, Moira, Utrecht (group)
2018 De Roze Sokkel, Kunstpodium T, Tilburg (group)
2018 Fresh Cacao, Cacaofabriek, Helmond (group)
2018 HKU Graduation Show, Pastoe Fabriek, Utrecht (group)
2017 RCT Rain, TUUB, Utrecht (solo)
2017 Inside Empty, TUUB, Utrecht (duo with Ersin Eken)
2017 Neighbourhood, Hooghiemstraplein 51, Utrecht (group)
2014 Atelier Rozenstraat, Atelier Rozenstraat, Tilburg (group)
2014 SAGE BLUSH, Kunstpodium T, Tilburg (group)
Education
(BA) Fontys School of Fine Arts, Education in Visual Arts and Design, 2015
(BA) HKU, Fine Arts, 2018