About Maartje Folkeringa

Maartje Folkeringa (Sint Anthonis, NL, 1978, based in Amsterdam) creates colorful, tactile works that explore nonverbal communication, the inner world, and alternative realities. She makes sculptures and reliefs (often wall-based) using materials like textiles, ceramics, and cast aluminum.

Since 2022, she has been developing the series Afleiding als aanleiding (Distraction as a cause). In this series, she creates space for concentration and intuition. Slow, focused making allows her to relate differently to the constant interruptions of daily life. At the same time, she embraces distraction — welcoming the unexpected discoveries that emerge while making.

As the series grew, her attention turned toward the mysterious and inexplicable. Instead of reflecting the intense world around her, she began to construct a new one — her own universe, still in its early stages, full of color, tentacles, and the unknown. Often it’s not a fixed idea that leads the way, but what the work itself starts to suggest. Following intuitive and associative choices, she uncovers meaning along the way.

Until 2010, Folkeringa created the series Individuals, depicting human figures with vivid inner worlds and a strong awareness of their surroundings. In the series Showroom bling bling, De beste (The best), Het hoogste punt (The highest point), Display premium, and Paradice, she explores themes of self-presentation, (unconscious) conformism, and the social codes embedded in the objects we surround ourselves and sometimes identify with.

In 2020, she transitioned from exploring the outer world to delving into the inner world, initially within the series Like and Fomo.

In 2021, Maartje 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. This refers to COPUOS (Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space), a UN initiative that emerged when space travel became a geopolitical issue. With the work Peaceful use of in between space Folkeringa expresses the desire for more mindful use of in-between spaces, on both macro and micro scales — and in both inner and outer spaces

Works have been exhibited in the Netherlands and abroad and are part of collections including Rijksinspectie digitale infrastructuur (Amersfoort), the Marie Curie building, Pivot Park (Oss), Museum Jan Cunen (Oss), citizenM (Dublin, IE), AkzoNobel Art Foundation, Curaçao Centre for Contemporary Art (CW), Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (Rotterdam), Erasmus University (Rotterdam), SKY Culture (Foshan, China), and various 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 has been teaching in the Fine Art department at the HKU, Utrecht.

Maartje Folkeringa
Studio: Oude Haagseweg 121 A1
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