Jeroen Jongeleen
Jeroen Jongeleen (b. 1972) lives and works in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
“The work of Dutch artist Jeroen Jongeleen, otherwise known as Influenza, is characterized by a distinct stance of dissensus: one that opposes both the superficiality of urban design and the increasing colonisation of the street. In a practice that engages with images and public space in a militantly active way, he employs numerous methods and materials - including stickers, plastic bags, spray paints and even the human body itself - in an effort to enliven the banality and sterility of the modern city. Championing a more liberated public sphere and critiquing the over-regulation of both the city and art, Jongeleen’s understated but always ingenious urban interventions are heavily influenced by art movements such as Fluxus (a multidisciplinary group of avant-garde artists in the 1960’s), who he sees as the true descendants of the Dada spirit. He describes his motivation to create art as not about ‘decoration or making people happy, but about free speech and movement, about opposition as the essence of a truly democratic society’. His politically motivated work therefore sets out to illustrate the power and the dynamics of the street, while offering a utopian vision for the future.” - Text Rafael Schacter
Jongeleen’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at institutions such as the Kröller-Müller Museum (Otterlo, NL) and the AVL Mundo - Contemporary Art Center (Rotterdam, NL). He has participated in group exhibitions at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (Rotterdam, NL), Het Noordbrabant Museum (Hertogenbosch, NL), Museum IJsselstein - MIJ (IJsselstein, NL), Stedelijk Museum Schiedam (Schiedam, NL), SCAPE Christchurch Biennial of Art in Public Space (NZ), the Prague Biennale 1 (CZ), Palais de Tokyo (Paris, FR), Stichting KunstFort Asperen (Acquoy, NL), Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen (Sankt Gallen, CH), Cobra Museum - Moderne Kunst (Amstelveen, NL), De Appel (Amsterdam, NL), Burlington City Arts (Vermont, US), and many others.
His work is in collections such as the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (Rotterdam, NL), Museum Voorlinden (Wassenaar, NL), The Kröller Müller Museum (Otterlo, NL), the Progressive Art Collection (Mayfield Village, US), to name a few. In 2024, Jongeleen was commissioned to create a piece for the collection of the Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (NL).
