Sjoerd Tegelaers

Sjoerd Tegelaers (b. 1987, The Netherlands) is a graphic artist and printmaker whose work traverses the boundaries between realism and surrealism, using mezzotint, photopolymer etching and other traditional printmaking techniques to explore human-animal relationships, identity and the absurd undercurrents of daily life.

Having trained in fine art — earning a Bachelor in Painting at the Artez Institute of the Arts (AKI, Enschede) — Tegelaers deepened his practice with postgraduate printmaking at the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wroclaw, Poland.

Tegelaers’s signature works often depict everyday scenes, but disturb the ordinary by inserting animals or placing subjects in subtly strange, dreamlike contexts. His compositions might show a bull in a parking lot or a figure half-submerged by the sea — calm at first glance, but carrying an ironic, unsettling tension that prompts reflection on our existence, behaviour and place in the world.

Among his many series is Burning Bridges and Sinking Ships, which presents mezzotints that invite the viewer to consider loss, transition and human vulnerability against symbolic backdrops.

Tegelaers participates actively in the global printmaking community. His works have featured in solo and group exhibitions — from early shows in venues across The Netherlands and Eastern Europe to international exhibitions in Berlin and beyond — and have been showcased by galleries such as Blooz Gallery.

Through hyper-realistic monochrome imagery, surreal juxtapositions, and a mastery of printmaking techniques, Sjoerd Tegelaers offers a quietly subversive vision — one that challenges viewers to confront the strange familiarity of modern life, and to reflect on their relationship to identity, nature and morality.