VHDG Art Market #2

The applications for this second Art Market came flooding in, and from this list we have selected the following artists and makers to present their work at VHDG:

Sophia Smit Sophia Smit (23) is a visual artist who paints from an intimate, female perspective. Ever since childhood, she has felt deeply connected to the organic softness of flowers. Where others might see fragility, Sophia sees strength and individuality. In her work, she embraces beauty, emotion, and femininity. She invites the viewer to see beyond a flower’s surface beauty, to reconsider what femininity truly means. She reclaims softness as strength and beauty as power in its uniqueness. Like flowers, no two expressions of femininity are the same, making the world a more beautiful and colourful place.

Maria van Driel Maria van Driel (1986) creates comics and standalone illustrations. In her work, she explores the question: how can making comics bring me joy? Due to her complicating nature, this has become a true quest—one that increasingly succeeds in bringing joy to others through her comics as well. She has worked for, among others, Rabobank, the municipality of Groningen, Vera Groningen, De Standaard, and her artist collective MASZIN, which is so experimental—also in its communication—that she’s not entirely sure it still exists…

Madalina Mihutoiu Madalina Mihutoiu is a Romanian illustrator based in Groningen. She creates from folklore, fantasy and her love for birds, constantly switching between a pen, the keyboard and a punch-needle to bring funky and often zoomorphic characters to life. She dabbles in creative coding, storytelling and comics. Her inspiration comes from cartoons, her environment and traditional Romanian masks used in rituals to scare away evil spirits and bring good fortune all year round. She finds peace in craftsmanship and deliberate, slow ways of making and always tries to infuse her work with the same magical qualities found in her country’s folklore.

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Riane Pater The works created by Pater come to life when she observes something remarkable in everyday life. We live in a world where everything already has a name and meaning. She takes these everyday things and places them in a new light. They come together from a different perspective, telling a new story where humor and absurdity are central. In the works Pater creates, she does not stick to one medium. On the contrary, she enjoys working with various mediums, as this provides freedom in creating artwork that can be anything and/or become anything.

Morgan Ton Morgan Ton (2000, NL) is a visual artist and filmmaker located in Groningen, The Netherlands. With a multidisciplinairy approach to her ideas, Morgan explores visual narratives that balance between reality and imagination. Equally inspired by the mundane and the existensial, Morgan conducts playful visual researches to reflect on the curiosities and questions that arise with her existence. This takes shape in different disciplines like films, installations, paintings and photography. Brent Souverein Brent Souverein is a self-taught photographer. Since he started his photography journey eight years ago, these years have taught him to perceive the world around him differently. Having developed a strong desire to capture this beauty that surrounds him, whether it is through documenting life, working on series, or taking portraits. With his camera dangling over his shoulder, he wanders around, searching for photographs that evoke emotions within him. It is this feeling that he is constantly pursuing as he captures the world around him.

Zoya Taseva As a multimedia artist I create interactive environments that turn viewers into participants. Through a blend of technology, design, and new media, my work explores how identities shift between physical and digital spaces. I’m fascinated by the blurry line between real and simulated experience, and I use responsive installations to invite reflection, connection, and a sense of shared space.

Jurre Huitema Black squares, white cubes, wet clay. Creating spaces and filling spaces. The artistic work of Jurre Huitema is about the experiment of composing. Purely visual, making decisions in line, plane, color, and form. This process of weighing and comparing is what Jurre finds so important in his work, and he enjoys taking the viewer along in this journey. In these tableaux of drawings on paper and panel, comparing is part of the act of seeing. The exploratory nature fits well with his background as an art teacher: What if we do it this way? Or like this? What happens then? And how does everything relate to each other?  

Daphne Vink “I am a maker who approaches the everyday as a silent observer. From a fascination with human traces, a half-full cup of coffee, a messy bed, I collect fragments of human presence. I work with photography, painting, and drawing in a poetic, layered style full of atmosphere. The concept of sonder, the realization that every person leads their own invisible life that is just as rich and complex as yours, guides my work. Still, I prefer to remain out of the picture. I observe and add to it with imagination, because sometimes the truth is less interesting than imagination.”  

Anne van Wel Anne van Wel is a painter and graduated as a Visual Arts teacher. In her paintings, she explores the tranquility and different atmospheres of nature using the expressive power of paint. Her works vary in size but always start with nature as the foundation. She emphasizes feeling, space, and the material itself. This creates a dialogue between the subject and the art of painting.

Doğanay Ülkü Pehlivan I work as a yoga instructor, practitioner, and facilitator who uses the arts in dialogical and therapeutic contexts.  In my current practice, I work with presence as well, transcending sensory systems, and embodied practice.