Wietske van Leeuwen

Wietske van Leeuwen (born September 22, 1965 in Rotterdam) is a Dutch ceramist, who lives and works in Monnickendam. Her works are constructed in a baroque style, with shells and fruit as recurring motifs.

Born in Rotterdam to Sjoerd and Marianne van Leeuwen, Van Leeuwen grew up in Mijnsheerenland. Her father ran a timber trading company in Overschie, and her uncle is the photographer Piet van Leeuwen (born 1942). She studied handicrafts and textile art at the teacher education in Delft from 1984 to 1989, and ceramic design at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam from 1989 to 1993 under Jan van der Vaart, and Henk Trumpie.

After graduation she settled in Amsterdam as independent artist and started her own studio. In 1996 Van Leeuwen was nominated for the NPS Cultuurprijs 1996, a battle between jung unknown artists on national television weekly in ten programs in the summer of 1996. In 1997 here work participated in the conceptual Shark Art Gallery in Rotterdam by Marcel Douwe Dekker, where the work was exhibited down deep in a tank with white sharks (see, image).

Van Leeuwen received a number of grants from the Mondriaan Fonds, Dutch Foundation for Visual Arts. Since 1997 she is also working as teacher ceramics and drawing at Altra College, Amsterdam.

Work of Van Leeuwen is present in the collection of the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, and the Princessehof Ceramics Museum.

Shell bowl with deepsea pike, 1993

Scale with matt brown side, 1995

Green glass bowl, 1997

Terrine with lid, 1997

Vase with cactus fruits, 2000

Bear claw pot, 2007

At the Studio Pottery website the Dutch Galery Carla Koch (2008) gave the following description of the motives in the work and motivation behind the work:

In 2010 the Kunsthal exhibited modern ceramic art collection of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen with works of multiple generations of Dutch ceramists. Work was shown from the beginning of the 20th century with Chris Lanooij (1881-1948) and Hein Andrée (1882-1961), more contemporary artists as Johan van Loon (1934), Jan van der Vaart (1931-2000), Barbara Nanning (1957), Geert Lap and Olaf Stevens, and work by Esther Stasse and Wietske van Leeuwen representing the last generation.

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Wikipedia