Marieke Bolhuis Makes Sculptures That Don’t Sit Still—They Haunt, Laugh, and Morph
Dutch artist Marieke Bolhuis crafts emotionally charged, intuitive sculptures that blend myth, psychology, and surreal humor. Her evolving forms challenge perfection and celebrate transformation.
Marieke Bolhuis - Sculpture Universe to discover
Some sculptures command silence. Marieke Bolhuis’s works?
They talk back.
Her creatures are half-formed stories, mid-metamorphosis, with faces that haunt and heels that dance.
They grimace, gallop, wear coats, and balance on the edge of narrative and nonsense.
These aren’t static objects—they’re characters caught mid-thought, mid-mutation, mid-sentence. Her world is part fairytale, part fever dream, and fully alive.
Bolhuis, born in 1962 in Hilversum, Netherlands, started as a painter. But when her body rejected oil paint, she rerouted, turning toward sculpture, photography, and installation.
Her allergy didn’t hinder her—it gave her a new material language. One that's messy, bold, and emotionally raw.
The first thing you feel standing in front of a Bolhuis sculpture is disorientation—in the best way.
A giant head with hollowed-out eyes, staring like it knows something you don't.
Marieke Bolhuis: Portrait of Rudy K. From the show at @nqgallerybe | Permission and Courtesy of the Artist
A half-human centaur-like figure prancing on clunky feet, seemingly built from a child’s fantasy and an archaeologist’s dig site.
Dominique Catherina Foertig
From our open Call Series
And faces—so many faces—carved, squashed, textured, and painted, like masks that forgot their performance and melted into truth.
She doesn’t sculpt from models or plans. Her process is intuitive, physical, and driven by feeling.
Bolhuis often reuses and reshapes older works, re-entering them like revisiting old journal entries—nostalgic, but ruthless.
These Sculptures Don’t Sit Still—They’re Alive and Staring Back
Each new piece carries echoes of previous ones, like ancestors whispering through their descendants.
Her materials reflect this sense of transformation: plaster, foam, textiles, aluminum, mirrors.
Some are delicate, others industrial. The contrasts collide: shiny vs matte, smooth vs ruptured, joyful vs eerie. The result is a sculptural language that’s tactile, psychological, and impossible to pin down.
Themes from mythology, biblical tales, and fairy stories creep in, but never in straightforward ways. Instead, they warp—like bedtime stories retold after a sleepless night.
Her sculptures become alter egos, avatars, metaphors for survival, joy, shame, or play. One wears a jacket like it’s cold or embarrassed. Another stares out like it wants to be left alone.
Each figure is vulnerable, defiant, and deeply human—even when they look like beasts or blocks.
What makes Bolhuis particularly relevant now is her commitment to transformation. In a world hooked on clarity and permanence, she champions ambiguity and change.
Her work doesn’t claim answers. It leans into questions: Who are we becoming? What’s left behind? What masks do we wear, and which ones crumble under pressure?
Bolhuis has shown across Europe and beyond, and it’s easy to see why institutions and public spaces want her work. It speaks to people without condescending.
It’s weird, but not alienating. It’s emotional without being didactic. Most importantly, it’s alive.
In an art world obsessed with perfection and polish, Bolhuis reminds us that mess has meaning. That weirdness is wisdom. That vulnerability is a kind of armor.
Marieke Bolhuis - Online
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Dominique Catherina Foertig
Our Current Open Call
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