Really Real Reality

Really Real Reality is a painting project consisting of 400 portraits, created over almost two years through my daily studio practice in Rotterdam.

Each portrait is based on a real encounter - people I met through my studio, exhibitions, teaching, and everyday artistic life. Together, these encounters formed a growing archive of faces that reflects the community surrounding my work.

At its core, the project explores migration, belonging, and the feeling of home. As a migrant myself, I became interested in how "home" is not a fixed place, but something that is continuously formed through people, relationships, and repeated encounters.

The work is intended to be experienced as a collective presence. Ideally, the 400 portraits are shown together in one space, creating an immersive environment where the viewer is surrounded by faces. In this way, the exhibition becomes a "room of people" - a temporary community formed through painting.

Really Real Reality is both a personal archive and a shared portrait of connection, movement, and belonging.