Reinier Eikelenboom finished his training as a worker in precious metals in 1975 at the Academy for Applied Arts in Maastricht, the Netherlands.
From 1975 till 1978 he had a gallery annex workshop in Venlo, after which he travelled Europe and settled in France for almost 2 years.
From 1980 till 1987 he had a studio in Amsterdam, from where he left for Barcelona and settled as an independent designer. Here it was that he got the inspiration to design the World Citizens, a series of clocks of a very outstanding design, which are now being sold in the Netherlands, Germany and the USA. From the way in which Reinier uses form and colour one can clearly distinguish the influences of Miro and Mariscal.
Reinier’s paintings are made up of melted metal and different kinds of paint, in which the shape of the melted metal determines the composition of the paintings. This process calls for a rapid method of working which in its turn leads to beautiful, almost incomplete and rough results. One literally looks at frozen movements which give the often cartoon-like figures a dramatic character.
The usage of the bright colours in combination with the metal make up a melancholy overtone; it seems as though the figures are telling us a story that is being instigated by the almost book-like titles that Reinier gives to his paintings, such as “2 Days in Paradise, or I am going to clean the window”. Also in this the artist seems to instigate something that then is as yet incomplete and rough, as if he quickly and hastily retreats again, which in the end leaves the observer a lot of room to make up his own story.