About Maartje Folkeringa

Maartje Folkeringa's (Sint Anthonis, 1978) work unfolds in a colourful, tactile universe through which she explores themes of nonverbal communication, the inner world, and alternative realities. Within her sculptures, reliefs, and everything in between, she combines labor-intensive techniques with traditional crafts such as textiles, ceramics, and cast aluminum, creating a contrast with the fast pace of modern life.

Since 2022, Maartje Folkeringa has been working on the series Afleiding als aanleiding (Distraction as a Cause), which centers on attention, concentration, association, and intuition. This series marks a shift in her focus from the outer world to the inner world, rekindling her fascination with the mysterious and the inexplicable. She speculates about alternative realities, invisible entities, energies, and the infinitely unknown, drawing inspiration from figures like Lee Bontecou, Wassily Kandinsky, Emma Kunz, Ursula K. Le Guin, Octavia E. Butler, and Jennifer Higgie.

Until 2010, Folkeringa created Individuals, figuratively depicting human figures. These figures (from 50 to 240 cm in height) are aware of their surroundings, with plenty going on in their mind. In the series showroom bling bling, de beste (the best), het hoogste punt (the highest point), display premium and paradice, Folkeringa loosely refers to self-presentation, (unconscious) conformism and unwritten social rules embodied in the objects we identify with. Since 2020 her focus has shifted from the outer to the inner and the visible to the invisible, initially within the series Like and Fomo.

Works have been exhibited in the Netherlands and abroad and are part of collections like Museum Jan Cunen, Oss; AkzoNobel Art Foundation; Curaçao Centre for Contemporary Art, Curaçao; Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Erasmus University, Rotterdam; SKY culture, Foshan, China; and private collections. Maartje Folkeringa (1978) studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy (bachelor) and the Sandberg Institute (master), both in Amsterdam. She attended artist-in-residence programs at Instituto Buena Bista, Curaçao; Make, Eindhoven, the European Ceramic Centre in Oisterwijk, and Fundaziun Nairs in Switzerland. Since 2015 Folkeringa lectures fine art at the HKU, Utrecht.

Upcoming exhibitions include:
10/11 - 06/4 Museum Jan Cunen, Oss, Volgens vaste patronen
22/11 - 25/01 W139, Amsterdam - Taking Root among the stars

Maartje Folkeringa
Studio: Oude Haagseweg 121a
1066 DC Amsterdam
email@maartjefolkeringa.nl

Download C.V.

Collect, Binnenkijken bij Maartje Folkeringa, Koos de Wilt, 03-2022

Mister Motley, Art everday life, Kritische schijn en schittering, by Alex de Vries | 22-03-2020

Fold, Unfold, Refold | Publication by Nanne op 't Ende, with artists' Sonia Kacem, Stéphanie Baechler, Mathilde Dumont and me | 2019

Trendbeheer Apprentice/Master Project #16 Maartje Folkeringa @ Kunstpodium T | Niels Post | 13.05.2017

Mister Motley Trick or Trait | Paper Podium | Wieke Teselink | 02.12.2014

Trendbeheer Maartje Folkeringa Boek | Niels Post | 08.10.2014

2014-TRICK OR TRAIT. Publication made in collaboration with publishing house and projectspace Onomatopee (Freek Lomme, now Set Margins) and with the designers from RAW Color. The writers about my work are Lucette ter Borg, Freek Lomme, Renske Janssen and Sarah Bay Williams.

´Eat your heart out and feed your true hunger´ | Freek Lomme

´Gimme´ | Sarah Bay Williams

´Stardust, The sober exuberance of Maartje Folkeringa´ | Lucette ter Borg

´Against the shiny surface´ | Renske Janssen

2013
ARTtube, film made by Jennifer Pettersson
WATCH FILM

Tubelight, ´verfijnde barbaren´, Richtje Reinsma, tubelight mei/juni

Beelden 3#2012, jaargang 15, nr. 58,´Maartje Folkeringa. Kijken naar hoe we doen´, Ans van Berkum

NRC Handelsblad,´Kostbaarheden, gemaakt van niks´, Lucette ter Borg, 16-08-2012

FD Persoonlijk, Het Financieele Dagblad, ´Gietschuim met bladgoud´, Manon Berendse, 23-06-2012