The work of Erik van Lieshout (NL, 1968) is radically personal. It consists of drawings, collages, photographs and video installations, and touches on major themes such as love, health, art, equality and death, always viewed from the perspective of the artist himself and his immediate surroundings.

Van Lieshout’s work BEER asks pertinent questions about the current financial development of art and culture, and the way in which multinationals can leave their mark on it. More specifically, he wonders to what extent an artist – in a Western art tradition – still has freedom to uncompromisingly, critically and politically engage when one receives a lot of money from a multinational, in his case Heineken on winning the Dr A.H. Heineken Prize for Art. In this way, the artist indirectly reflects on the historical position of both the white man in art and in the hyper-capitalist system.

Guillaume: ‘This work is out of this world; I’ve loved discovering this. What I really like about Erik is that he starts with a question he’s faced with himself: where does creativity end and commerce begin? This is a question we’re also often confronted with. He interweaves humour in his approach, but never cynically. Humour is a brilliant way to tackle complex issues.’