'Benfo' is our combined personality. 'We' are: Ben Vollers and Fons Heijnsbroek, living and working in Amsterdam, Holland. Since four years we frequently paint together: same spot, same moment; we are painting on the same canvas. This way we made 50 large abstract paintings till now. We two are amazed ourself how 'Benfo' during these 4 years has grown out to a third independent artist; an identity on his own with a very characteristic sound and approach, different from our personalities.

We already knew each other for 15 years very well; discussed our personal art frequently and we had many expositions together since then. But painting together is another thing; it is a very unusual and strange experience to fuse two individual forces and pretend to make so a piece of art which stands. Nevertheless we started this adventure and during 2007-2009 we painted 30 free abstract large paintings together, meanwhile developing a lot of mutual confidence and freedom which grew during our common painting sessions. Each Benfo-painting can not be reduced to the stilistich characters or handwrinting of Ben or Fons individually. There has become a definite integration of us two.

Individually in our own art we make both abstract paintings in an expressive way on our own, and we both like to use our spontaneous visual impulses taking shape into the painting. This is the basic ground in our cooperation. We both love abstract expressionistic painting and discuss a lot the work of former painters who gave shape to this fascinating area of painting. We also share our love for the city Amsterdam, the old city, as well as the modern visual dynamic. And perhaps it is not by chance that we both love strongly free jazz: it is the music which is also created spontaneously in improvisation, so we recognize ourselves in the jazz improvisation, partly.

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