'Slaying the Cash Cow' by Leon Aarts, 2009, acrylics on canvas (sold)

Artist Background

Leon Aarts is a contemporary New Zealand painter active since the 1980s, known for his bold, intuitive expressionism. Heavily influenced by his grandfather, the Dutch naive artist Leonardus van de Ven (Nardus, d. 1957), Aarts channels familial artistic lineage into works that blend abstraction with emotional and socio-political bite. Based in Christchurch, he's exhibited in group shows (e.g., West Melton Art Exhibition 2008) and maintains an online presence on platforms like Saatchi Art, ArtMajeur, and Absolute Arts. His oeuvre explores themes of excess, identity, and crisis, with pieces like Spent (2008) and Road Rage (2012) echoing this painting's intensity. Aarts is an emerging-to-mid-tier artist in the Kiwi scene, prolific (137+ works on ArtWanted as of 2024) but not yet blue-chip, with a dedicated following among collectors of Oceanic expressionism.

This painting captures Aarts at his most incisive— a vibrant "vivisection" of greed that's as relevant now as in 2008.