Anja Kok is born in Kampen (Netherlands) in 1961.
She has trained at the Constantijn Huygens Academy in Kampen and at the post bachelor school of arts Ateliers ’63 in Haarlem.
She now lives and works in Gorinchem.

In the paintings of Anja Kok everyone has his own thoughts. They don’t interact. Even if there are more persons involved. People often situated in there daily environment or experiences. Anja Kok assumes that anything in life is ficticious. Everybody is busy with fictional thinking bringing everyone in rapid flow. By securing de image on canvas she creates a momentum of respite. Holding a mirror.
What do we do?
What we think?
Every painting, whether it’s a portrait or a situation with several persons arouses this feeling. Man captured in his situation and his thoughts.

There is clearly a recognizable style. It is characterized by a rapid accurate style alternated with cautious precision effect.
In her style she combines pictorial elements of realism and naïve art. Anja Kok is not specifically involved with the detail but approaches the entire image. The portraits and scenes she paints are never static but put temperarily suspended. Every moment they seem to come back to life. They look also very plastic and because of the created plasticity the images seem to transcend the borders of the canvas. This makes that the image radiates a vital impression.
Pictorial energy splash off.

There are a number of subjects in her paintings always appearing.
It are subjects are interwoven with her life. She paints people from constantly different and surprising perspectives. This strengthens the effect of stopping the time for a moment.
The people depicted are all characters. She invents the keyrole players herself. That’s the reason why some of those appear every now and then.

You also may laugh at the pictures because some of the figures radiate a kind of helplessness (especially the men in her paintings).