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.
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Galerie Michael Haas
Niebuhrstraße 5
10629 Berlin
Galerie Michael Haas
Niebuhrstraße 5
10629 Berlin
Kunst Lager Haas
Lise-Meitner-Straße 7-9
10589 Berlin
Kunst Lager Haas
Lise-Meitner-Straße 7-9
10589 Berlin
Phone: +49 (0) 30 88 92 91 0
Mail: contact@galeriemichaelhaas.de
Phone: +49 (0) 30 88 92 91 0
Mail: contact@galeriemichaelhaas.de
1979–1984
Academy of Fine Arts, St. Joost, Breda, Netherlands, focus on graphics and lithography
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
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