Few things brings a Tile Addict joy like the witnessing enthusiastic inclusion of tiles in a public space. Whether it’s a stylish restaurant, a dramatic mural facade, or an artful underground station, tiles improve pretty much every location they’re placed. This is true even of the most unexpected places, like today’s feature.
Blending Dutch ceramic traditions with skating subculture, artist Arno Coenen created “an Outcast’s Sanctuary” in an Amsterdam skatepark designed by Rune Glifberg.
Assisted by Ton Haring and Simian Switch, Coenen’s inky blue sketches decorate the plain white tiles that peep out from banks, ramps, and pipes. Curious abstractions of figures, textures, faces, buildings, and skulls, chosen to celebrate the “punky, thrashy, subcultural 80’s roots” feature across the artwork.
Designed to partially mimic sprawling classroom doodles, the miscellaneous shapes are all gloopily globbed together beneath Coenen’s signature sinews. Each image, hand drawn in bic ballpoint, were transferred by Maatwerktegels onto tiles from Koninklijke Tichelaar.
A new post by Hanna Simpson, Diary of a Tile Addict, March 2025.