"On Lies, Secrets and Silence"
Marjolijn de Wit
The works of Marjolijn de Wit explore the ideas of future archeology, the interpretation of history, and our relationship with nature and consumerism. Often composed from a random mixture of various elements of flora and fauna such as leaves, birds, or flower petals, De Wit disturbs their hierarchy by adding human made objects, abstract painterly shapes, and playing with size, scale and composition that resembles the technique of collage. Unrelated objects appear as debris of a story that has yet to take place, even if it is only in the mind of the spectator entirely. They are the rubble of our society, in which nature is ever so often disrupted by the human urge to control it, and of which De Wit’s works provide a frame for the spectator to constantly find new narratives.
Distinctive to her practice is her use of contemporary signifiers; National Geographic magazines from the 70’s that continuously refer to forms of human creation and the existence of culture as oppositional to the wilderness of nature. Also in her techniques and use of painterly materials De Wit finds balance between images of nature, advertisements and news articles that remain relevant to this day. She wants to show how nature and consumerism continually influence each other, while residing on opposite ends of the spectrum. The artist, offering mere fragments of a whole, transitions between historian and visual trickster, inviting us to imagine not just her created histories, but also speculate on how future generations will interpret ours.
Marjolijn de Wit (1979, NL) lives and works in Utrecht. She graduated from the Academy of Art and Design St. Joost in Breda and from 2008 – 2009 she was a resident at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. Her museum exhibitions include Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA, Weserburg Museum of Modern Art, DE, CODA Museum Apeldoorn, NL, the De Pont Museum, Tilburg, NL, the Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, NL, and the Museum Van Bommel Van Dam, Venlo, NL. She has had solo exhibitions at several galeries including Otto Zoo Gallery, Milan (IT) and Asya Geisberg Gallery, New York (US). She earned the 2013 PULSE Prize, a jury-awarded grant, and has been the recipient of the Mondriaan Fund, and Amsterdam Fonds Voor de Kunst developing stipend. Her work has been reviewed by Blouin Artinfo, Het Parool, Dutch Culture USA, Collector Daily, and Feature Shoot, among others.
Image: Marjolijn de Wit, Detail: "Label of achievement," 2024, oil on canvas, 145 x 160 cm.