Han Nefkens started to collect art in 2000. The H+F Collection, named after himself and his partner Felipe, is in long-term loan to various museums in The Netherlands and abroad. Nowadays Han Nefkens is not only active as a collector but also as an initiator of international art projects, often in collaboration with museums and other art institutions.
The Han Nefkens Foundation is a private non-profit organisation that was set up in Barcelona in 2009 with the aim of promoting the production of contemporary artworks. The mission is to stimulate artistic creation in Barcelona by offering international artists an opportunity to create artworks and interventions in the city, and to promote other fields of contemporary creation.
According to Han Nefkens, sharing is the antidote to loneliness, and he does so through his artistic and anti-AIDS projects and his writing. In 1995, he made his debut with the autobiographical novel Bloedverwanten (“Parents”), which was followed by Twee lege stoelen (“Two empty chairs”, 2006) and De gevlogen vogel (“The bird flew”, 2008). Nefkens also writes short pieces, “vignettes”.
H+F Collection
The H+F Collection is the collection of contemporary art owned by Han Nefkens. It consists of photographs, videos, installations and paintings by Jeff Wall, Sam Taylor-Wood, Bill Viola, Shirin Neshat, Felix Gonzalez-Torres and others. Nefkens gives the works on long-term loan to museums in the Netherlands and abroad, including the Centraal Museum in Utrecht, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, Huis Marseille in Amsterdam and the FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais in Dunkirk. Travelling exhibitions in several European museums are also made up of works from the H+F Collection.
www.hfcollection.org