Biography
Boris Tellegen (NL, 1968) began his artistic career in the 1980s, using his pseudonym DELTA. As a Graffiti artist, Tellegen treated the two-dimensional frame of the letter and the word as sculpture, bursting out or morphing into the wall, piercing its boundaries by adding a dimension. By combining the reliefs of his practice with his education in industrial design, he soon started to create three-dimensional work on the intersection of architecture, painting, sculpture and installation.
In his body of work made over a thirty-year span, Tellegen explores how to transcend the boundaries of walls by annexing, deconstructing and recomposing them, to ultimately disregard them in recent installations. Through the ever-fluctuating shape of his work, Tellegen continues to disrupt our perception of surface and space.
Boris Tellegen received his education in Industrial Design Engineering at the Technical University of Delft (NL, 1988-94). Tellegen has exhibited widely in European, North American and Australian museums, institutions and galleries. Recent exhibitions include MIMA, Brussels (BE, 2017), Les Abattoirs, Toulouse (FR, 2016), Amsterdam Museum (NL, 2015) and Palais de Tokyo, Paris (FR, 2014). Tellegen regularly creates commissioned sculptures in the public spaces. A recent example is a series of sculptures between Amersfoort and Utrecht in the framework of De Stijl’s centenary celebration (NL, 2017).
Boris Tellegen (1968) was born in 1968, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
He lives and works in Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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Education
- 1988-1994 Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology
Grants & Awards
- 2009 Amsterdamprijs, Amsterdam
- 2004 Grant, Fonds voor Beeldende Kunsten, Vormgeving en Bouwkunst
- 2001 Millennium National Price, with Maurer United Architects and Ronald van der Voet for ‘Inconstruct’
Selected Solo Exhibitions
- 2019 SUPER USER ACCESS, Galerie Alice, Brussels, Belgium
20 bits, BACKSLASH, Paris, France - 2018 UnPlot, curated in collaboration with Daniel Hofstede, Galerie Ron Mandos, Amsterdam
- 2017 Friendly takeover, curated in collaboration with Daniel Hofstede, MIMA Museum, Brussels
Rietveld meets Mondrian, Mondriaanhuis Amersfoort
- 2012 Galerie Ron Mandos, Amsterdam
- 2011 Kunstraum.ch, Basel, Switzerland
Subduction zones, Muziekgebouw ‘t IJ, Amsterdam - 2010 Exothermic, De Fabriek, Eindhoven, Netherlands
- 2007 VHDG, Leeuwarden, Netherlands
- 2004 6X6, Hoogt/4, Utrecht, Netherlands
- 1998 Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tourcoing, Tourcoing, France
Selected Group Exhibitions
- 2021 Retour aux sources, La galerie Nicolas Xavier, Montpellier, France
THE STAIRS, BACKSLASH, Paris, France - 2020 8th Ply, curated by Sasha Bogojev, The Garage, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
+ COLORS, BACKSLASH, Paris, France
Art Rotterdam, Galerie Ron Mandos, Rotterdam, The Netherlands - 2018 Post-Graffiti Stress disorder, MARCA, Catanzaro, Italy
UNTITLED Art Fair with Galerie Ron Mandos, Miami Beach, USA
Annex, avec \ with Akay & Jeroen Erosie, Concordia, Enschede, The Netherlands
FUTURE IS COLLECTIVE, BACKSLASH, Paris, France
Beyond the Streets, Los Angeles, USA
SESSIONS #7, Galerie Bertrand Grimont, Paris, France
ART PARIS ART FAIR, Grand Palais, Paris, France
- 2017 Rietveld meets Mondrian, Mondriaanhuis, Amersfoort, The Netherlands
Galeristes, Carreau du temple, Paris, France
Art Brussels with Galerie Ron Mandos, Brussels, Belgium - 2016 PHK18 #08, with Niels Post & Jeroen Molenaar, PHK18 Bureau Voor Kunst, Rotterdam
Centrifuge, Les Abattoirs, Toulouse
Geert Mul | Boris Tellegen curated by Domenico de Chirico, Galerie Ron Mandos, Amsterdam
- 2015 New York meets The Dam, Amsterdam Museum
The Bridges of Graffiti, Arterminal, Venice, Italy
Urban Art Biennale, German museum and World Cultural Heritage Site at the Völklingen Ironworks, Völklingen / Saarbrücken, Germany
Un dessin est beau si la ligne est vivante, Le Pilori, Niort, France
Backjumps 20+1 – urbane Kommunikation und Ästhetik, Kunstraum Kreuzberg / Bethanien, Berlin
Graffuturism 5 Year Anniversary Exhibition, San Francisco, USA
Mapping The City, Somerset House, London - 2014 Asphalte, Biennale d’art urbain \ urban art biennale, curated by Alice van den Abeele & Raphaël Cruyt, Charleroi, Belgium
Au-delà de l’architecture (Beyond Architecture), curated by Domitille d’Orgeval, Espace topographie de l’art, Paris
Hammer, artistic strategies, architectural interventions and spatial politics in public space. Boris Tellegen, J. Mayer H., Wermke / Leinkauf. Du Moulin Pop-up, Kunsthaus Lempertz, Berlin - 2013 Teenage Kicks Festival, Les Ateliers du vent, Rennes
Art Rotterdam, Galerie Ron Mandos - 2012 Les bruits du dehors, 4e Biennale du Havre, France
- 2011 Exothermic, Game City, Denbosch, Netherlands
Onder constructie, RC de Ruimte, IJmuiden, Netherlands
Blowing up the spot#2, Studio Lukas Feireiss, Berlin - 2010 BACKJUMPS 4.2, Kunstraum Kreuzberg Bethanien, Berlin
Pyramide van Ijmuiden, RC de ruimte, IJmuiden, Netherlands - 2009 Born in the Streets, Fondation Cartier, Paris
D’Raw, Glaspaleis, Heerlen, Netherlands
Wearable Technologies, NIMK, Amsterdam - 2008 Stacked and Scattered, W139, Amsterdam
De Wens Een Indiaan Te Worden, Kunstfort Vijfhuizen, Vijfhuizen, Netherlands
Fundamentals, MU, Eindhoven, Netherlands - 2006 The Whistle Test, Scion Installation, Los Angeles, USA
- 2005 Jan Cunen museum, Oss, Netherlands
Bearbrick World Tour, Gbe at Passerby, New York, USA
Backjumps – The Live Issue Part 2, Bethanien, Berlin - 2004 Icy Grape, Elms Lester Painting Room, London
Romamsterdam, Museo Di Roma de Trastevere, Italia - 2003 Backjumps – The Live Issue Part 1, Bethanien, Berlin
- 2002 AndNow, AndA Tokyo/AndA, Osaka, Japan
- 2001 Playtime, MU, Eindhoven
- 2000 Thinking of A Masterplan, Showroom MAMA, Rotterdam
- 1998 Clash, Kunsthal Rotterdam
Graffiti related images, Showroom MAMA, Rotterdam
Public Commissions
- 2017 – 2018 Rietveld meets Mondriand, 10 sculptures, 6 meters high, realized in different materials along a bicycle path between Mondrian House (Amersfoot) et Rietveld (Utrecht), Netherlands
- 2012 Front of the building, Berlagelaan, Haarlem, Netherlands,
- 2011 Statue pour Palais de Tokyo (Niveau 1 – Descente Grémillon), Paris
“Huis van Hendrik”, a commission by Ymere, Berlage laan, Haarlem, Amsterdam
Catalogues & Publications
- 2018 Rafael Schacter, “Street to Studio”, Lund Humphries Publishers
- 2013 “8697, black books between 1986 & 1997”, 384 p., Publisher: A Paper Book. Photography: Rene Gerritsen. Lithography: Mariska Bijl. Translation: Mike Ritchie. Design: Undog/Festina Amsterdam. Limited edition of 550, 2017
Jérôme Catz, “Street Art – mode d’emploi”, Flammarion, pp. 7, 27, 42, 200-201 - 2011 “Boris Tellegen – Graphite”, ERECT Lab., 2012
“abundance”, ALICE Gallery, Brussels - 2008 “The New Dutch Master – DELTA”, Elms Lesters, London
