Biography
Jan Robert Leegte is one of the early pioneers of internet-based art in the Netherlands. Since the 1990s his practice has explored the aesthetic, conceptual and material possibilities of digital technologies. Rather than using software to make art, he makes art about software: familiar elements such as scrollbars, Photoshop selection tools, Google Maps, JPEG compression and computer code are dissected to reveal the hidden aesthetics and nature of everyday technologies. Initially working online, he began bringing digital materials into the physical exhibition space in the early 2000s, through prints, sculptures, installations, drawings and projections that connect contemporary media with minimalism, land art and conceptual art. In recent years he has also been active in blockchain art, releasing several successful NFT collections.
Born in Assen in 1973, Leegte lives and works in Amsterdam. He studied architecture at Delft University of Technology before graduating in fine art from the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam. In 2021 he had a solo exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, and his work has been shown at institutions including the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Whitechapel Gallery in London, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, Kunsthalle Zürich, the Ludwig Museum in Budapest and ZKM Karlsruhe, as well as Art Basel | Zero 10. It is held in collections including Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Museum de Fundatie in Zwolle, the Triton Foundation and the AkzoNobel Art Foundation.