Chantal Rens (1981) is a Dutch artist with a particular interest in found photography which she uses as a starting point for her hand cut-and-paste collages. She transforms existing images into non-existent images.
In 2014 she founded the publishing house PANTOFLE BOOKS together with artist Gummbah.
In “YOU RUN AROUND TOWN LIKE A FOOL AND YOU THINK THAT IT’S GROOVY” she combines images of animals balancing a glass of alcoholic beverage on their backside. About this work Erik Kessels (artist/curator) said “Maybe the most unnecessary book of 2016, but definitely the most funny one I came across (…) You could ask yourself: Why, but this is exactly why the book is deadly funny. (…)”.
In 2018 she published “COMMON SENSE IS A HUNGY BITCH” and “Various Animals” both collections of collages. And then there is the ungoing series “Cats and Dogs in the Window”, a collection of photographs of pets looking out of the window towards the camera, of which 6 parts have been made since 2016.
She has exhibited widely in her native Netherlands and was part of various exhibitions, art book fairs and photo festivals ao XS Book Fair (JP, 2018) Ghent Art Book Fair (BE, 2019), FRUIT Exhibition (IT, 2019), “BLAST! Festival of Photography” (UK, 2019), and ASAMA INTERNATIONAL PHOTO FESTIVAL (JP, 2019).