Rik Lina – Valkenburg – Netherlands 1942

Lived and worked on several continents, preferably in wild nature on the advice of Odilon Redon: “Immerse yourself in nature!”. As a result, he devoted his life and work to the study of deserts, mountain areas, tropical rainforests and coral reefs. In 1975, having emigrated with his family to the Dutch Caribbean, an essential period of more than a thousand hours of deep-sea diving experience began. A major part of his paintings and graphic work has the poetry and life forms of the oceans and coral reefs as a motif, in addition to research into the jungles of rainforests and inner spaces.

Starting as an oriental calligraphic painter, he studied at the Amsterdam Rietveld Academy (1961-1966) and created numerous individual and collective international exhibitions. In 1968 he came into contact with the magazines Brumes Blondes, of poet Laurens Vancrevel in Amsterdam, and Mouvement Phases, of poet Edouard Jaguer in Paris, collaborated with their magazines, exhibitions and manifestations and thus became acquainted with artists in the international surrealist community. With his lifelong partner, artist Elizé Bleys (1942-2022) they had two children: Jim 1971, and Nadja 1974.

Together with artist friends, Rik started the anarchism/surrealism magazine Droomschaar 1990-1994, and the international collaborations: CAPA (Collective Automatic Painting Amsterdam) 1991-2022, the Cabo Mondego Section of Portuguese Surrealism 2008-present, and Cornucopia 2010-present.

With the Portuguese poet Miguel de Carvalho, he organized the traveling international exhibitions “The Reverse of the Look – Surrealism Today” in Coimbra, Lisboa and Lagoa in 2008-2009; and in 2016: “In the Light of Glazed Castles – Surrealist Collages” in Figueira da Foz, Portugal.

In 2010, a retrospective exhibition of his early work was held in the Portuguese city of Famalicao at the “Centro Portugues do Surrealismo” of the Fundaçion Cupertino de Miranda. In 2005, 2007 and 2022 his work was shown in solo exhibitions at the Fundación Eugenio Granell in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Both museums included his work in their collections, as did the Boymans van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam in 2021, and in 2023 the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

The Spanish-language Caleidoscopio surrealista by Miguel Pérez Corrales in 2015, and the English International Encyclopedia of Surrealism, Michael Richardson, Dawn Ades, et all, of 2019 devote a chapter to his work.