Visual artist Mariken Wessels (1963) studied acting at the Amsterdam Theater School. After a decade-long acting career during the 1990s, she studied visual art at the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, before establishing an independent artist’s practice. Her work comprises photography, video, as well as installation, sculpture and artists books. Her artistic vision has been shaped by her experiences in theater. She works with scenes and scenography, roleplay and character building. Multilayered projects interweave appropriated imagery and self-produced images to reimagine relationships between, for example, the public and private spheres or fiction and non-fiction. In recent years, the role of bodily expressions has become more prominent, mainly imagined through ceramic work, photography, collage and video.

Artists: Mariken Wessels