Atelier Van Lieshout is the studio founded by sculptor, painter, and visionary Joep van Lieshout. A graduate of the Rotterdam Academy of Art, Van Lieshout established his studio in 1995 and has since worked exclusively under the name of the collective. The studio’s name acts as a methodology to challenge and subvert the myth of the solitary artistic genius.

Over the past three decades, Van Lieshout has built a multidisciplinary practice that blurs the lines between art, design, and architecture.

He dissects systems—whether societal structures or the human body—experiments with alternatives, treats exhibitions as laboratories for recycling, and even declared an independent state, AVL-Ville (2001), located in the port of Rotterdam. All of this unfolds within Van Lieshout’s signature provocative style, whether politically or materially charged. His works consistently explore a set of recurring themes, motifs, and obsessions: systems, power, self-sufficiency, life, sex, and death.

One of his most prolific and controversial sculptures, Domestikator (2015), drew attention even before being placed in the Tuileries Garden near the Louvre. It was later adopted by the Centre Pompidou, where it was exhibited during the 2017 Foire Internationale d’Art Contemporain.

Van Lieshout blends imaginative aesthetics and ethics with an entrepreneurial spirit. His work has influenced movements in both architecture and ecology and has been widely celebrated, exhibited, and published internationally. His pieces have been featured in major biennials including Gwangju, Venice, Yokohama, Christchurch, Shanghai, and São Paulo. Atelier Van Lieshout has received numerous accolades since 1991, including the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1995.