Simon Schrikker, a painter based in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, will be featured in his first exhibition in the United States. Schrikker will feature new paintings in a solo show titled “Unleashed” at the Carl Berg Gallery. This exhibition will feature a series of paintings depicting dogs that are portrayed in expressive and sometimes violently aggressive poses. The images of these dogs, which are culled from the Internet, are portrayed as wild beasts, not as the domesticated version we are so familiar with. These paintings are not painted in a realistic technique but instead are painted in a more gesturally aggressive expressionistic manner as Schrikker’s approach to painting powerfully coexists with his subject matter. Schrikker states, “Physical reality must always coexist with suggested reality. A painting doesn’t work if I hold back in making it. I think that’s my personal mark; the last measure I take should be physically recognizable.” Schrikker’s distinctive style of large sweeping brush strokes and almost messy drippings, coupled with a dark palette on large canvases are highlighted with moments where the painter punctuates the innate character of his subject. For Schrikker, the dog image has provided him a vehicle to intrinsically express, as he describes, his “furious instinctual urge to paint.” It is not per se his interest to paint dogs, but rather to use this subject to portray his interest in painting. Schrikker further states that, “The subject of the dog and the style of the painting let me call up particular feelings without specifically naming them, but they’re feelings that are related to my portrayal of mankind. The work portrays emotional states such as fear and aggressions, but without emphasizing that too literally.” In this body of work Schrikker’s frenzied approach to the canvas is met with horror as he unleashes the beast to the viewer. Schrikker was a finalist for the Queen’s (Beatrix) Painting Prize in 2005, The Netherlands, and followed with an exhibition at the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague, The Netherlands that same year. Schrikker is in the collection of the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague as well many private collections.