About Maartje Folkeringa

Maartje Folkeringa's (Sint Anthonis, 1978) work unfolds in a colourful, tactile universe through which she explores nonverbal communication, the inner world, and alternative realities. Within her sculptures, reliefs, and everything in between, she combines labor-intensive techniques and 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 delves into her rekindled fascination with the mysteries of life. In this series, she explores the boundaries of the visible world and the infinitely unknown.

Until 2010, Folkeringa created Individuals, figuratively depicting human figures. These figures 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.

In 2020, Maartje Folkeringa transitioned from exploring the outer world to delving into the inner world, initially within the series Like and Fomo. ‘I want to slow down in my work, as a counterbalance to the ever-accelerating society.’

In 2021 Folkeringa created Peaceful use of in between space, for The Dutch Authority for Digital Infrastructure, which is responsible for the infrastructure from ten kilometers below ground to over forty thousand kilometers above ground. When space travel came into vogue, the UN signed a treaty for the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. COPUOS (Committee of Peaceful Uses of Outer Space). With the work Peaceful use of in between space Folkeringa expresses the desire for more delicate use of in-between spaces, both at the macro and micro level and both internally and externally.

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, Marie Curie Building, Oss; 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.

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

Download C.V.

De Volkskrant, Kunstwerk van de week, Celestial body with a tail, Sarah van Binsbergen, 15-01-2025

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