Jo Frenken

Jo Frenken, visual artist, graphic designer and teacher, usually begins his projects in the form of a book, and an exhibition can be a spatial translation of that. His fascination with the book developed during the decades he worked, as a participant and supervisor of graphic techniques, at the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht. His working method is conceptual in origin with a particular interest in scientific methods and diptychs.

He switched his studies in architecture at Eindhoven University of Technology for monumental design, painting and graphics at the Maastricht School of the Arts, and then mixed media and graphics at the Jan van Eyck Academy.

Initially he worked as a teacher of painting and graphics, then for nearly four decades as a supervisor at the Jan van Eyck Academy, in various print-related positions, and for twenty years as a teacher of graphic design at the Maastricht Academy of Architecture.

In 2011 he established a new Printing & Publishing Lab at the Jan van Eyck Academy, specializing in stencil printing techniques. He initiated and organized the Magical Riso Biennial, a worldwide gathering of stencil printing experts.

After retirement, he concentrates on his own art practice and occasionally he teaches, workshops and lectures, with a particular focus on artists’ books. And he remains affiliated with the Jan van Eyck Academy as a volunteer expert.