Faassen is a painter and photographer who lives and works in Leiden, The Netherlands. Since 2002, Casper has been gaining a very fast and broad recognition through his solo and group exhibitions in galleries and art fairs. In 2003, he came in second to Corneille in the Dutch Artist of the Year Election. In 2007, he was awarded Talent of the Year in that same competition. His works have been exhibited in many solo exhibitions, group shows and art fairs in Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, The Netherlands, Germany, Hong Kong, New York and Chicago. His work is featured in private as well as public collections such as the Frans Hals Museum, Museum de Lakenhal and the Duch Royal Library (The Hague). Recently, Fotografiska Museum in Stockholm and Japan Museum Sieboldhuis in Leiden hosted a solo show of his work. His “View on the Hague” and View On Dordrecht were featured next to Jab Van Goyen’s original masterpieces in The Leiden Historical Museum and the Dordrecht Museum respectively.
Portraits, landscapes, nudes, still life’s and flowers, all traditional 17th century Dutch painterly subjects, are translated in his unique figurative language. His paintings can be seen as large-scale drawings on walls or ‘objets trouvées’. Beauty is his central theme. The silent, eternal and beautiful is set against a background of apparent decay: Vanitas. Decay is visible in the handling of materials, not necessarily in the subject presented. His photographs are built up like paintings with different imaginary and physical layers, giving the viewer a feeling of distance and at the same time a voyeuristic presence. Both the paintings and the photo works are purified and rich at the same time, striving to have iconic value.