CV

2024

Manifesta 15 Barcelona Metropolitana

Vapor Buxeda Vell, Sabadell, Barcelona

2024

Manifesta 15 Barcelona Metropolitana

The See of Egara, Terrassa, Barcelona

2024

Liquid world drifts in

Abbaye de Maubuisson, Saint Ouen L'Aumône, France

2024

Threads, structures and everything in between

Museum CODA, Apeldoorn, NL

2024

Inside the blooming Surface

TextileMuseum Tilburg, NL

2023

The Glass Garden

Main Hall, Radboud UMC Nijmegen, the Netherlands

2022

Onder het plaveisel wervelen de wortels

Kunsthal Kade, Amersfoort

2022

My Home is the Sea

Middelburg, NL

2021

Terrarium@Anningahof Zwolle

Anningahof Zwolle, NL

2021

Research: Passementerie & Embroidery

Tilburg/ Utrecht/ Amsterdam, NL

2020

Liquid Garden/Beneath the Surface

Het HEM, Zaandam, NL

2020

Terrarium

Museum Princessehof Leeuwarden, NL

2020

Parasite Garden

Loods 6 Amsterdam, NL

2019

Art Project Dafang

Dafang, Jinxi Province, China

2018

Liquid Garden Stevenschurch

Stevenskerk, Nijmegen, NL

2018

The Porous Tree

Belmonte Arboretum Wageningen, NL

2018

Jardin Liquide

Museum Zonnehof, Amersfoort, NL

2017

Liquid Garden/Miami

Museum Vizcaya Miami, USA

2017

Liquid Garden 2

Stadsmuseum Woerden, NL

2017

Waves, IJsselbiënnale

Zwolle, NL

2016

Nebula and the Soft Machine

Textiel Museum Tilburg, NL

2016

White Landscape

Museum Henan, Zhengzhou, China

2014

Mimicry

Anningahof, Zwolle, NL

2014

Le Musée Perméable

Museum Het Valkhof Nijmegen, NL

2013

All Systems Melt Down

Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, NL

2013

Silent Runner

Museum Boijmans van Beuningen Rotterdam, NL

2013

Black Sun

Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, NL

2013

Red Landscape

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Rotterdam, NL

2012

Unbridled Wall

MOA, Museum Oud Amelisweerd Utrecht, NL

2011

Irreversibility

Icheon Museum, South Korea

2010

Red Lentils, Journey continued

MAD museum, New York, USA

2009

UNBRIDLED

Museum Gouda, NL

2009

Unbridled Pillar

Dyckman Farmhouse Museum, Manhattan NYC, USA

2006

Untitled

Art Center VHDG, Leeuwarden, NL

2003

Invader

Voormalig gerechtsgebouw, Utrecht, NL

2024

The Underground Tree

Amsterdam Westerpark

2023

The Glass Garden

Main Hall, Radboud UMC Nijmegen, the Netherlands

2017

From Beneath/Tower Garden

Enexis, Zwolle, NL

2016

Around the Sun

DIFFER, Dutch Institute for Fundamental Energy Research, TU Eindhoven (NL)

2015

Growing Fence

Deventer, NL

2013

Barrier Reef

Schiedam (NL)

2012

Spoon Sculptures

Apeldoorn, NL

2010

Don't leave me this way

Refuse Delivery Station, Barendrecht, NL

2010

Chain Reaction

City Council Heemskerk, NL

2009

Facade Stones

Veluwemeer en Tornemeer, Woerden, NL

2008

Homeshaker

Hans Berger Clinic, Oosterhout (NL) and several collections a.o; LACMA Los Angeles, TextileMuseum Tilburg

2008

Red Lentils

Heerlen, NL

2003

Untitled, Inspectorate for Consumer Goods

Zwijndrecht, NL

2024

Inside the blooming Surface

TextileMuseum Tilburg, NL

2023

The Glass Garden

Main Hall, Radboud UMC Nijmegen, the Netherlands

2019

Art Project Dafang

Dafang, Jinxi Province, China

2017

From Beneath/Tower Garden

Enexis, Zwolle, NL

2016

Nebula and the Soft Machine

Textiel Museum Tilburg, NL

2016

Liquid Garden

Centraal Museum, Utrecht, NL

2016

White Landscape

Museum Henan, Zhengzhou, China

2015

From Far Down

Collection KF Heinfonds Utrecht, NL

2011

Irreversibility

Icheon Museum, South Korea

2008

Homeshaker

Hans Berger Clinic, Oosterhout (NL) and several collections a.o; LACMA Los Angeles, TextileMuseum Tilburg

About

In her installations, Tanja Smeets explores organic growth processes in public spaces as well as in museum galleries. Installations that dialogue intimately with the architectural surroundings. The installations often seem to be frozen in time, in a phase between flowing and dripping, growing and budding. Like parasites, they lay a poetic layer of organic forms over the hard surface.
Materials from daily life used in large groups and different sizes play an important role in these structures. This abundance of materials raises questions about our consumption, but also about what we deem valuable or worthless, and why. The tension that arises between this matter-of-fact presence on the one hand and the imminent danger of a growing organism on the other, plays an important role in her work.

Bio

Tanja Smeets is a visual artist who lives and works in Utrecht, the Netherlands. She holds a degree in fine art from ArtEZ Institute of the Arts in Arnhem.  Her work has been showcased in numerous museums and galleries, including the HEM in Zaandam, NL, museum Princessehof in Leeuwarden, NL, museum Vizcaya (Miami, USA),  the Henan Museum (Zhengzhou, China), TextileMuseum (Tilburg, Netherlands), Centraal Museum (Utrecht, Netherlands), Museum Boijmans van Beuningen (Rotterdam, Netherlands), The Gyonggi International Ceramics Biennale , Icheon(South Korea) and the Museum of Arts and Design (New York, USA). She made commisioned works for several places in the Netherlands.  Smeets has participated in a number of residencies in the Netherlands, China and South Korea. She worked several times at the European Ceramic Workcenter in the Netherlands. She has work in the permanent collections of the Henan Museum,(China ), the TextileMuseum, Centraal Museum, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen and various commissions which include installations for the KF Hein foundation, DIFFER; the Dutch Institute for Fundamental Energy Research, Enexis, DSM and the AKZO Nobel Art  Foundation.

Publications

2019

Multiples in koper en keramiek van Tanja Smeets

2017

Fringes of Beauty, TextielMuseum, Tilburg (NL), text Suzan Rüsseler

2017

Contact Earth, First Central China International Ceramics Biennale, Zhengzhou

2013

Tanja Smeets Domestic Strangers, text Els Hoek

2011

Gyonggi International Ceramics Biennale, South Korea

2010

Dead or Alive, The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), New York, USA

2010

SKOR, Art Projects in Care Institutions

Video/Radio

Education

1987-1991

1984-1987

2017     
Fringes of Beauty, TextielMuseum, Tilburg (NL)

2014     
Jantine Kremer, 'Schilderen zonder verf', De Vensterbank

2013     
Book 'Tanja Smeets Domestic Strangers', published by Timmer Art Books (Lecturis)

2011     
Korea International Competition, Gyeonggi International Ceramix Biennale

2011     
Sundaymorning Ceramics, Gyeonggi International Ceramix Biennale

2010     
Dead or Alive, catalogue, publication The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), New York

2010     
Foundation Art in Public Space (SKOR), The Collection: A New Context for Art Projects in Care Institutions

Residencies

2019

2017

2017

2012

2011

2010

Teaching

2021

2020

2013

2016      
Liquid Garden, Tanja Smeets, ARTtube, by Centraal Museum Utrecht (NL)

2014    
EKWC: kleien op het hoogste niveau, VPRO, Nooit Meer Slapen

2014      
Filmportret 13 Tanja Smeets, Biënnale Gelderland

2013      
Tanja Smeets in De Avonden, VPRO, De Avonden

2013      
Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Boijmans TV 2013, aflevering 6: Wildgroei

Lectures

2018

Contemporary Arts Program, Miami, "Liquid Garden" (NL)

2017

Rijswijk Textiel Biënnale 2017, Rijswijk (NL)

2015

20x20, LUX Nijmegen (NL)

2015

20x20, Kunstenlab Deventer (NL)

2011

'Invade space', Piet Zwart Institute Rotterdam (NL), Master Design and Architecture

Contact

studiotanjasmeets@gmail.cominstagramfacebook