Koos Breen stretches frontiers of disciplines and pushes them to edgy limits. He fluently shifts between being an art director, designer, and artist: continuously expanding his expertise and interests while challenging himself as much as the possible boundaries. In the same vein, Koos hardly distinguishes between autonomous works and commissioned projects: different worlds blend as he imagines how objects and forms could function within divergent disciplines, scenes, and environments.

Koos is especially interested in what an image is, does, is perceived as, and could represent – both online and offline. Here, his graphic design background comes into play. He explores the interplay between two- and three-dimensionality and experiments with scales and perceptions, usually through photographic means in which dimensions and disciplines blur. He approaches design in the broadest sense of the term, questioning the hierarchy between physical objects and photographic representation.

Koos made paper look like marble, designed exhibitions that act like stages, turned haircuts into carpets, and created catalogues that lend their appearance from clutches. This shows how he has been able to bring different worlds together. He integrates his interests in perception and materiality into his commissioned assignments; often uses prefab materials out of the context of their original purpose; and plays with perspectives and expectations, creating (material) illusions and combining elements from worlds that seemingly do not fit together.

Koos has been commissioned by royals and rappers as much as fashion designers and cultural institutions. Often his projects and research are executed in close collaboration with others: he is part of Morph.love collective and often works together with other artists, photographers, creative coders, architects and designers. In all cases, he questions the possibilities and affordances of materials – and tries to push beyond their expected applications and the given design commission. Hence, the outcomes could be graphics, publications, and books as much as scenography, exhibitions, installations, unidentified design objects, or art works. In his versatile practice Koos Breen applies a content-driven, conceptual yet associative approach in which one project naturally leads to the next, as his practice evolves continuously.

Koos was recently guest teacher at HfG Karlsruhe's Communication Design Department in Germany and is now available for other teaching jobs.

Koos is a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale.