Rowan van As (1991, Goes, NL) is a visual artist based in Rotterdam. He studied at the Willem de Kooning Academy (2010–2014) and earned his MFA at St. Lucas in Antwerp (2015–2016).

I use real life as source material. The city is a container where images, objects, symbols, trash, art, and functional things form our cultural heritage. I remix these into layered works, asking: What if this thing could be that? In doing so, I elevate the discarded and transform it into surreal, icon-like pieces. 

For example, I once found a worn 1990s recliner whose decaying base sounded like screaming seagulls. It inspired a painted childhood beach memory, which I linked to the chair in a playful audiovisual assemblage.

My most ambitious work to date is a functioning reinterpretation of a classic yellow cab. I aim to bring it to New York, placing it in dialogue with the city that inspired it, and to document the journey along the way.

Themes in my work revolve around the relative powerlessness of the individual: What can an ordinary city dweller truly change? I seek a poetic language to make that tension visible, sometimes playful, sometimes confrontational, always open to dialogue.

Recent work has been shown at Arti et Amicitiae (Amsterdam), Statens Museum for Kunst (Copenhagen), Extrapool (Nijmegen), HOK Gallery (The Hague), SIGN (Groningen), and Brutus (Rotterdam), and is held in private collections.