Biography

The ceramic sculptures of Carolein Smit are exclusively figurative, incredibly detailed, and covered with a shiny and colourful glaze. At first sight, her animal figures appear charming and cute.

However, upon closer inspection of the details, such as the drops of blood or the posture that expresses strong feelings, one becomes suspicious and the work suddenly starts to evoke emotions. The ambivalence and irritation of what one feels accustomed to, something that seems normal and familiar, recurs in the artist’s works, which include human figures and hybrid creatures.

Smit often elaborates on the traditional vanitas theme, with skulls and bones recurring frequently in her works. Smit does not draw sketches before she starts creating her ceramic sculptures. As she often sculpts a few works at the same time, she comes up with various ideas and connects the individual parts that only appear to have sense in the final and complete composition.

The sculptures are fired, glazed, and fired again in several stages. From creating small sculpted details to colour design, this task is like an adventure because there are a multitude of variables that can spoil the final effect, or at least make the work look different than the artist had wished.

From 1979 to 1984, Carolein Smit studied at the St Joost Academy of Art and Design in Breda, the Netherlands. Smit has been very popular in the Benelux states for many years and a retrospective exhibition devoted to her was organised in 2010 at Kunsthal Rotterdam. In 2018, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Grassi Museum of Applied Arts in Leipzig and the Drents Museum in Assen displayed her ceramic works at individual exhibitions.

Works

Exhibitions

News

Documents

Publications

1979–1984

Academy of Fine Arts, St. Joost, Breda, Netherlands, focus on graphics and lithography

Solo exhibitions (selection)

2017/2018

Myth and Mortality. The fairy-tale world of Carolein Smit, Victoria & Albert Museum / L’amour fou, Grassimuseum, Leipzig / Carolein Smit L’amour fou, Drents Museum, Assen

2016

Golem, Carolein Smit, Galerie Michèle Hayem, Paris

2015

L’amour fou, Flatlandgallery, Amsterdam

2014

Emanation, Galerie Michael Haas, Berlin

2012

Death and the maiden, Flatland Amsterdam, Amsterdam

2010

Evil innocence, Kunsthal, Rotterdam

2009

Tränenrot und Perlentau, Galerie Michael Schultz, Berlin

2008

Flatland Galerie, Utrecht

2007

Galerie Jan van Hoof, ’s-Hertogenbosch

2006

Galerie Terra, Delft

Galerie Michael Schultz, Berlin

2005

Innocenti, Brutto Gusto, Rotterdam

2003

Galerie Albion putti, Groningen

Carolein Smit – Von Menschen und anderen Tieren, Artothek Köln, Cologne

Carolein Smit: Aracoeli, Museum Keramion, Frechen

2000

Galerie Gudrun Schmidt-Esters, Cologne

Group exhibitions (selection)

2018

PAINTING still ALIVE… On the way to modernity, Centre of Contemporary Art, Toruń/Poland

2016

Sexy Ceramics, Museum het Princessenhof in Leeuwarden

Ceramix, Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht en Maison Rouge Paris

2015

Skeletten, Museum Beelden aan Zee, Scheveningen

Queensize, Female Artists from the Olbricht Collection, Arnhems Museum

Objectif Terre, Chateauroux Biennale of Ceramics, curator Stéphanie Le Follic-Hadida, Chateauroux

Ceramix, Ceramic Art from Gauguin to Schütte, Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht

2014

Queensize, Me Collectors Room, Berlin

Droomkunst, Singermuseum, Laren

2013

Handmade, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Hey! Modern Art & Pop Culture, Halle Saint Pierre Museum, Paris

2012

Metamorphosis, All Visual Arts Gallery, London

2011

Gevaarlijk Jong, Museum Dr. Guislain, Gent

Memories of the Future. The Olbricht’s Collection, La Maison Rouge, Paris

Maria, idool van alle tijden, Museum Flehite, Amersfoort

Walking the Dog – Der Hund in der Gegenwartskunst, Kunsthalle Dominikanerkirche, Osnabrück

2010

Trinity, Homage to the Illogical, Flatland Gallery, Utrecht/Paris

2009

Bis Zuletzt, Museum für Sepulkralkultur, Kassel

2008

KunstKörperlich – KörperKünstlich Part 2, Kunsthalle Osnabrück, Osnabrück

2006

European Ceramic Context 2006, The Artmuseum of Bornholm, Gudhjem

2005

Galerie Brutto Gusto, Rotterdam

Galerie Hof en Huyser, Amsterdam

Galerie Michael Schultz, Berlin

2004

L’obsession Du Detail, Fondation Bernardaud, Limoges

E Bella La Bestia?, Lo sprito del lago, Stresa, Isola Bella, Fule International Ceramic Museum (FLICAM), Fuping, China

2002

Galerie Thomas Levy, Hamburg

2001

Woonkamers, Schatkamers, Museumpaleis Het Lange Voorhout, Den Haag

Half Om Half, Van Reekummuseum, Apeldoorn

Wir sind die Ander(en), Museum Martha, Herford

Traces From The Lowlands – Tracks Into The Future, Ceramic Art Gallery, Sydney

2000

Stormcenters, Watou, Gent

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