New artist-in-residence: Mariken Wessels

Mariken Wessels (1963, the Netherlands) creates artist’s books, photo series, film works, sculptures, and installations. Her multilayered projects interweave appropriated imagery and self-produced images to reimagine the boundaries between the public and private spheres, as well as the role of bodily expression.

In her practice she investigates dynamics of voyeurism, authorship, and power, engaging with the physicality of the body across media—from photographic archives to clay-based sculptural forms— while exploring its construction within visual cultures shaped by erotic and pornographic imagery. Through processes of transformation and displacement, these references are reworked into a critical and poetic language that questions the historical and patriarchal frameworks underpinning the representation of the female body.

During her six-week residency at Lottozero, Mariken Wessels will develop a new series of textile works, combining techniques such as printing, painting, and digital embroidery. In this context, she extends her research into the material and tactile dimensions of textiles, advancing a feminist inquiry into the body in its multiple expressions and vulnerabilities.

Prior to her visual practice, Wessels studied acting at the Amsterdam Theater School and, following a decade-long acting career, pursued visual arts at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy. She has held solo exhibitions at Fotomuseum Antwerp (2016) and Fotomuseum Den Haag (2017), and her publications include Taking Off. Henry my Neighbor (2015), Miss Cox (2020), and Fruits of Labor (2023). Her works are part of major international collections, including Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), Kunstmuseum Den Haag, the International Center of Photography (New York), and the Museum of Modern Art Library (New York).

Mariken Wessels, Arising from the Ground – Model Cox I, 2018, part of the series Model Cox consisting of 4 pieces, glazed ceramic, 160 x 40 x 80 cm, with plinth: 190 x 130 x 80 cm. Unique piece.