Joep van Lieshout (Ravenstein, NL,1963) is a visual artist who lives and works in Rotterdam. Initially working as a solo artist, he started out producing objects in bright coloured polyester – the material that would become his trademark – since the early eighties. In 1995 he founded Atelier Van Lieshout, leading a group of like-minded individuals in his search for creative and aesthetic solutions, and thus undermining the myth of the individual artistic genius.

Atelier Van Lieshout produces objects that balance on the boundary between art, architecture and design. Recurring themes in the work of AVL are power, politics and autarky, as well as the more classical theme’s of life and death. With this body of work, both autonomous and commissioned, AVL has attained international recognition. Over the past 25 years, AVL has had exhibitions at major art institutions and collections worldwide.