Stan Kuiperi And His Relentless Pursuit of Art and Education

Stan Kuiperi, Aruban artist, creates mysterious art that makes you wonder why you see the landscapes, but only the markings of human beings’ presence on the canvasses. Through his art and teaching Stan tries to change the way art has been viewed in his small, 100,000 people country, Aruba. Kuiperi’s art calls for protecting the natural environment and unique Aruban culture.

Stan Kuiperi’s art journey began in secondary school. He was inspired by his teacher to become an art educator, a pretty rare profession for 1970s Aruba. There were no art schools or art classes offered at the time on the island, so Stan went to the US, and later to Holland, Netherlands, to accomplish his dreams. Through art classes his interests in art increased and he started to make art professionally full time.

Stan traveled a lot and lived away from Aruba for a long period of time, however, Aruba’s landscapes were very present in his paintings.

The Aruban landscapes are very different: green parks, beaches, mountains, and desert-like lands. "Those empty desert-like landscapes have always been my inspiration. It’s very rough and dry. Nobody lives there. During my travels I got to know other cultures, people and landscapes, but I was never interested in painting those," says Stan.

His works are inspired from the old indigenous philosophy that considers human beings as being completely tied to the landscape. "Nature and human beings are not two separate things, it is one existence," says Stan. The human figure never enters Stan's paintings, but you can find some marks that show their existence. It can be tiny marks, scribbling, or rocks that are put in a straight line, for example, that indicates that humans were there. The colors are very naturalistic, very much like the Aruban landscapes. He uses a lot of browns, reds, yellows, and oranges in his paintings.

In Kuiperi’s art, time and space are indefinite--it just shows our relationship with nature. By excluding people from his paintings, the artist punishes them for thinking and behaving in a destructive way, as if they are stronger than nature. He says: "Nature is much stronger than we are. One earthquake or hurricane and we are gone. But we think that we are the most important inhabitants of this planet. I see it the other way around." He adds: "There’s always been trouble between human beings and nature, except for the old indigenous cultures. Modern cultures have always tried to dominate nature, and by doing so we destroy Mother Nature."

The presence of other people and their art on the island of Aruba before the current civilization are themes that make the artist’s mind wonder. There are art made by indigenous groups that are about a thousand years old on the island that no one knows what it means. You can see it on the rocks and in the caves. "That I find very intriguing. You could stay on the same place as the people that have stood before you, and you know you are a completely different human being, but we have lost that sense of meaning, of mystery, of history," says Stan.

Indigenous art is the topic of his new body of works for his current exhibition, Guadirikiri. Stan Kuiperi re-interprets old indigenous rock drawings and cave paintings using modern materials and techniques. The paintings were exhibited in a new gallery for a 21st century audience. "The results are great. They are as strong and powerful as a thousand years ago," says the artist. This collection is meant to make the Aruban people aware of their cultural heritage and to take better care of it.

Stan Kuiperi’s art, apart from being a form of artistic expression, has also become an instrument used for social commentary. One of the most important messages in his art for the last ten years was the call to preserve nature. Recent economic and social growth in Aruba takes away from its natural environment. Stan says: "That has become another point in my work, to make people aware that they are destroying their own natural environment if they tear down trees, cacti, and everything that is natural to build houses, shopping malls, and roads. Because it’s such a small island, it’s very fragile." Stan doesn’t just create loud art that is very visible. He invites government representatives to the openings of his art shows and has a conversation around these issues. He notes that, fortunately, there’s a growing interest in maintaining the natural environment.

He says, "I use art to make things visible to other people, and to help inspire and make them see what I see." Stan continues to say, "I think art is a very important function in analyzing and criticizing society, and creating other ways to look at society, to become more sensitive, to become more holistic, to become more balanced. Art is very good in that."

Stan and his wife, who is a dance teacher, came back to Aruba in 1984. Because it is a special place for them, they were committed to get involved and change the way art was viewed on the island. Both of them teach at the Teaching Training Institute in Aruba, educating the new generation of teachers about the importance of art in children's education.

Stan says: "Being a teacher and an artist is how I show people what art is, and why it is good. In my teaching, becoming an artist is not that important. More important for me is to teach my students and kids in schools how to become creative individuals, how to think both creatively and critically. We need creative people in every sector of our society."

Stan Kuiperi has a lot of ideas and inspirations, but he is involved in so many projects that he can hardly find the time to paint.

He initiated the cultural aspect of "Aruba 2025," a huge national project that brings together the government, non-profits, and the whole community in a conversation about how Aruban people want to develop their country by the year 2025. Phase one of the project was recently completed.

Stan and his wife founded an NGO called "Aruba International Arts Foundation," with goals to create and to keep the connections with the international art community, to organize art shows, and to build an art museum for kids in Aruba. As Stan says, "It’s very important in a small community to have a place with good art, some art shows, and programs that are also educational."

Stan Kuiperi tries to balance both sides of his life: His art and his social activities. "I teach full time, but certain periods of the year I just lock myself up to paint and to create art and make new painting collections for exhibitions."

Stan shares that a challenge for Aruban artists is the fact that they are overlooked. He says: "Because we are so very small, organizations and exhibitions organizers don’t even think about us. A lot of people talk about the Caribbean, but what they mean are the Spanish, French or English Caribbean--countries like Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. But they tend to forget about the Dutch Caribbean, which is all the way in the South, these very small islands. So we have to be constantly on the lookout to see what’s going on."

Since most artists in Aruba have to get other jobs to survive, they have to work extra hard to make their art. And they have to work extra hard to get the contacts internationally and to promote their works. "You have to be your own agent. There’s no one to do it for you. You are very much on your own," says Stan. Fortunately, things are steadily getting better and there is now a strong, growing appreciation for all the arts in Aruba. Stan Kuiperi was just awarded with an Exclusivo Magazine national "2009 Exclusive Person Award" for "Excellence in and Continuous Promotion of Art and Culture."

Stan Kuiperi is committed to continuing to paint and to teach art. For him, the two activities are inseparable, as well as contributing to raise awareness of the unique Aruban landscape and culture that have to be preserved. The artist considers Aruba a paradise: wild, healthy and open. However, he says it doesn’t come for free: "Paradise comes at a price. You have to work for it, you have to be aware of it, and you have to conserve it. Because, I think, many nice communities like ours are being spoiled and changed much too rapidly."