Hilarius Hofstede (born Dirk Hilarius Cas Hofstede, Hilversum 1965) is a Dutch multi-media artist who explores tensions between representations of culture and nature in his works on paper, collages, assemblages and texts. 

 Hofstede is renowned for his experimental literary works ‘De Markies Van Water’ and ‘Microsoft Mon Amour’, both available on Amazon with Zip Publishers/San Francisco. Hofstede composed the lyrics for the forth-coming album by legendary N.Y. band Defunkt of funk master Joseph Bowie. His collaged, pastiched and bricolaged renderings of primal and animal forms are to be found in many museums and private collections. 

 Berend Hoekstra and Hilarius Hofstede created three massive exhibitions under the name of Polynesian Instant Geography at the Stedelijk Museum in 1999,  at the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels in 2003 – Porte De Hal and at the Musée de la Chasse in Paris in 2012 (Berend Hoekstra is HH’s all-time favorite artist and brother in crime in Marquesan Arts). Hofstede initiated the traveling group show Bison Caravan in Denmark in 2002, which went to  4 continents (Aarhus/DK 2003, Marseille/FR 2003, Vlissingen/NL 2004, Bamako/ML 2006, Bialowieza Forest/PL 2008, Amsterdam/NL 2014, Québec/CA 2016, Rio de Janeiro/BR 2017, Angers/FR, 2018) and is still going on and strong. 

Hofstede is also known for his trilogy in dialogue with collections in musea in Denmark, Natural Born History (Naturhistorisk Museum, Aarhus 2005), Pop Gun (Royal Danish Arsenal Museum Copenhagen 2006) and The Album Cover (Kunstmuseum Holstebro 2007).  Recently he has been working on Mythos (The Collage Project), fusing nature and popular culture within his well-tested Paléo-Pop concept. Hofstede is also co-editor with Patrick Healy of the underground Paleo Psycho Pop Magazine numbers 1-50 / 1996-2020).

Hilarius Hofstede is represented in the Netherlands by Marsha Plotnitsky / The Merchant House,  Amsterdam.

Jan and Mieke Teunen from Teunen Konzepte in Johannisberg/DE have been the main promotors and sponsors of Hofstede’s work ever since the first Polynesian Instant Exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and continue to be so.

Hilarius Hofstede

Mormoiron, France, 2019