Aldo van den Broek

In every dream home a heartache

His adventurous and at times rather chaotic existence is directly reflected in his paintings and sculptures. These are raw works, often made from materials found on the street such as cardboard, pizza boxes, and chewing gum wrappers.

From September 29, 2020, to February 28, 2021 – For Aldo van den Broek (1985), life and art seamlessly merge into one another.

Aldo’s works follow the trail of the many places he has been: Berlin, Tbilisi, Siberia, Amsterdam, Tokyo. Restlessly searching for something that isn’t there. In his work, Aldo does not shy away from dark moods, nor does he reject the image of the romantic artist who finds inspiration in suffering and the indefinite. Associations with themes such as leaving, disappearing, loss, death, but also passion, arise when viewing his numerous portraits and paintings of undefined architectural spaces.

Aldo in his studio (photo: Cas van der Pas)

Texts by Maartje Wortel

In In Every Dream Home a Heartache, alongside some older works, mainly paintings and sculptures created in the past year are on display. The texts in the exhibition are written by Maartje Wortel, a writer and close acquaintance of Aldo (Aldo knows everyone). She followed him in the lead-up to the exhibition and wrote a hallucinatory portrait:

Aldo stands trembling at my door. “Baby,” he says. “This taxi ride is going wrong, it has to stop. I think I need to find a place to stay for a while.” He asks if he can stay in my attic room. “I brought tartare for you, I don’t mean anything sexual by that.” He lies on my couch smoking. Not long after, he leaves again. He’s been called by one of the guys he’s drawn. Asking if he can house-sit a villa in Tokyo. He stands up and crushes a (zero point zero) beer can. “If I want, I could sell this can, but you can have it from me.”

[excerpt from Maartje Wortel’s exhibition text]