Bio – Margriet van Breevoort

Van Breevoort creates worlds inhabited by alienating organisms that combine human, animal and technological elements. At first, her fictional worlds seem to offer a form of escapism: an escape from the complexity of everyday reality. Yet beneath their fantastical surface lie precisely those human attempts to understand, organise and control the world around us.

Her hyperrealistic sculptures, mostly made from skin-like silicone, resemble living creatures while remaining clearly fictional. They draw us in through their humour and distinctive, often endearing aesthetic, yet can feel uncomfortable or even confrontational because of their fleshy and sometimes grotesque forms. This tension between attraction and repulsion is a central element of her work. Nature and the body can fascinate and repel us at the same time. Precisely because we are part of them, we continually try to understand, control and shape them to our own needs.

The works move between opposites such as natural and artificial, vulnerable and grotesque, living and lifeless. Across different series, Van Breevoort explores different forms of human attempts at control. One body of work examines the relationship between nature and technology, while another explores our tendency to organise and classify the world around us. In ‘The Waiters’, by contrast, she focuses on the moment when that sense of control falls away and all that remains is waiting.

Her creatures thus become exaggerated embodiments of human contradictions. What begins as a fantasy world turns out to be less removed from reality than it first appears. The attempt to escape reality ultimately leads back to the very same human systems, desires and contradictions we were trying to leave behind.

“I try to create an illusion of a reality in which the tensions created by humans that I see around me merge and literally take on a body. By enlarging them and placing them in a new, often absurd context, I want to create a moment of wonder and doubt. I find it interesting when something first feels familiar and appealing, but then you no longer quite know what you’re looking at. That’s exactly the feeling I sometimes have when I try to understand the world.”

Margriet van Breevoort was born in Amsterdam in the year 1990, she studied at the Hogeschool voor de kunsten Utrecht and received her diploma with honours in the year 2013.

2026 Urbs Animalis, Kunstlerverein Walkhmuhle, Wiesbaden, Germany, 20 August – 15 November
2026 Meesterverbinding, Maakgemeenschap De Hoop, Zaandam, 8 – 14 May
2025 Growth, Solo @NL=US gallery, Rotterdam, 13 December – 18 January
2025 PAN Art fair, RAI Amsterdam, 2 – 9 November
2025 SOTSOG II, Saatchi Gallery, London, United Kingdom, 21 November – 12 January
2025 Avesta Art, Avesta, Sweden, 23 May – 14 September
2025 Feestbeest, Artcentre Schiedam, 9 – 30 March
2024 PAN Amsterdam, 24 November – 1 December
2024 CAN REON Festival, Barcelona, Spain, 27 – 28 September
2024 Arcadian dream: Creatures from a world reborn, Solo, TU Delft, 3 October – March
2024 Volta New York, United States, 4 – 8 September
2024 Kunstroute De wijk IJhorst, 16 May – 2 June
2024 Anoma Maze, Doloris, Utrecht, 24 May >
2023 When the flood comes, Deltacongres Groningen, Groningen, 8 – 9 October
2023 Prikkel, Buitenplaats Doornburgh, Maarssen, 6 October 2023 – 7 January 2024
2023 Side eye, Das Leben am haverkampf, The Hague, 22 September – 8 October
2023 Biënnale Noordwijk, Noordwijk aan zee, 21 March – 21 August
2023 Art Rotterdam, Rotterdam, 8 February – 12 February
2023 Pigs and sheep and beasts, Nieuw Dakota, Amsterdam, 13 January – 23 April
2022 More & meer, Museum More, Gorssel, 15 October – 12 March
2022 Vooruitzien, Oude Raadhuis, Zwijndrecht, 16 September – 16 October
2022 Kunst van het geloven, Nepomuk kapel, Boxmeer, 22 August – 11 September
2022 Empowerment, North Sea Jazz Festival, 8 – 10 July
2022 BBA Art Prize, Kühlhaus, Berlin, Germany, 3 – 19 June
2022 Come alive Foreplay + Come alive, Nieuwe Muntgebouw, Utrecht, 29 April – 31 July
2022 Solo, Technophilia, Galerie LUMC, Leiden, 17 March – 26 June
2021 Counterbodies edition #2, De achtertuin Rotterdam, Netherlands, 10 – 12 December
2021 Passie en obsessie, Stedelijk museum Sint-Niklaas, Belgium, 9 October – 28 November
2021 Solo, In light of tomorrow, Gallery NL=US, Rotterdam, 19 June – 31 July
2021 Counterbodies, Art Rotterdam, 4 – 10 February
2021 Art Rock, Museum of Saint-Brieuc, France, 18 May – 30 May
2020 Nieuwe aarde: 12 visioenen, Westerkerk, Amsterdam, 31 October – 16 December
2020 Onward and upward, Droog, Amsterdam, 2 October – 17 January
2019 Jusqu’ici tout va bien?, Centquatre-Paris, Paris, 12 October – 9 February
2019 Solo, Pulchri studio, Den Haag, 4 – 28 October
2019 Solo, Willem twee, Den Bosch, 11 June – 7 July
2019 Species, WGKunst, Amsterdam, 12 April – 28 April
2019 Out of office, Singer Laren, Laren, 11 December – 7 April
2018 Art the Hague, Den Haag, 26 – 30 September
2018 Robotlove, Campina Melkfabriek, Eindhoven, 15 September – 2 December
2018 Hyperrealisme Sculptuur, Kunsthal, Rotterdam, 10 March – 1 July
2018 Beeldentuin Ravensteyn, Heenvliet, 4 May – 27 May
2017 Art the Hague, Den Haag, 4 October – 8 October
2017 Art of playing, Den Haag, 4 October – 8 October
2017 En boven de Polder de Hemel, Wijkermeer, 7 October – 8 October
2017 Opening Dits, Gallery Dits, Amsterdam, 21 September – 29 October
2017 Into the void, Duo show with Krystyna Ziach, NL=US, Rotterdam, 1 September – 15 October
2017 Prospects/concepts, Art Rotterdam, Van Nellefabriek, Rotterdam 9 February – 12 February
2016 Maelström, de kracht van het ongrijpbare, Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam, 5 November – 11 November
2016 Beelden in Leiden, Hooglandse kerkgracht, Leiden, 19 May – 7 August
2016 Ecce Homo Erectus, Odapark, Venray, 12 March – 26 June
2015 Solo, MILK, Amsterdam, 19 December – 21 January
2015 Pudding, Artdeli, Amsterdam, 30 July – 27 August
2015 Tussen Taal & Beeld / Verzamelde Verhalen #07, Kunstenfestival Watou, Schore, Belgie, 4 July – 30 August
2015 No Man’s Art Pop-up Gallery, Donner bookstore, Rotterdam, 28 May – 7 June
2015 Tweetakt, Neude, Utrecht, 27 March – 12 April
2015 Kaap, Fort Ruigenhoek, Groenekan, 6 April – 31 May
2014 Alles van Waarde, Fort Asperen, Acquoy, Netherlands, 20 August – 28 September
2014 Scope Basel 2014, Witzenhausen gallery, Basel, Switzerland, 17 June – 21 June
2014 KAAP, Fort Ruigenhoek, Utrecht, 11 May – 29 June
2014 Moira en Lucy: Op het spoor van het surrealisme, Moira, Utrecht, 19 April – 11 May
2014 art fair: Realisme, Passenger terminal Amsterdam, 16 – 19 January courtesy of Artkitchen
2013 Art in Redlight, Beurs van Berlage, Amsterdam, 26 – 30 December courtesy of Frank Taal
2013 Solo Margriet van Breevoort, Witzenhausen Gallery, Amsterdam, 26 October – 23 November
2013 Promise Promise, Galerie Frank Taal, Rotterdam, 8 Septembre- 3 October
2013 GOGBOT Youngblood Graduates in Free Space, Tetem kunstruimte, Enschede, 5 September – 15 September
2013 art fair: Art Copenhagen, Witzenhausen gallery, Kopenhagen, 30 August – 1 September
2013 Utrecht DownUnder, Utrechtse werfkelders, 23 august – 1 September
2013 Best of Graduates, Ron Mandos Galerie, Amsterdam, 27 July – 31 august
2013 Jan Zumbrink Prijs #5, De Vishal, Haarlem, 16 June – 28 July
2013 Exposure Graduation show, Atelier gebouw Fine Art, Utrecht, 27 June – 30 June
2011 Hemelse Zomer 3 en Beeldentuin, Galerie de Ploegh, Soest, 29 May – 10 September