Melle de Boer (Delft, 1972) is a Dutch painter, writer, printmaker, draughtsman and singer-songwriter. 

His painterly process is highly associative. Symbols, figures and idioms he uses are often taken from popular culture and literature. De Boer then applies these figures as abstract elements, repurposes for figures of a completely different nature, or outright disfigures them for visuals puns. Through this process, a lighthouse turns into an abstract form reminiscent of Malevich, two letters P are used for boots and an open umbrella get two handles. 

In contrast to his paintings, his drawings and collages are literal and figurative. Cartoonish, mostly in black and white and often accompanied by short texts each individual drawing serves as a windows into De Boer’s original narratives filled with dark humor and slight melancholy.

Melle de Boer graduated from the Willem de Kooning Academie in 1995. His work is in collections such as Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken and Museum Van Bommel Van Dam. In 2025 Museum Rijswijk will present a solo exhibition of De Boer’s work. Further to his career as a visual artist, he is the founder of the band Smutfish, an acclaimed Dutch country-noir band.

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