EngelsːKruithof̠Anouk(Q1584826)

Anouk Kruithof (b. 1981, Dordrecht, The Netherlands) is a visual artist with a trans-disciplinary approach which encompasses sculpture, photography, collage, video, books, websites and (social) interventions in the public domain. The work depicts the transience and the chaos of this world, which she skilfully addresses by mixing urgent social issues with personal experience to mirror the state prevalent in our society today. Kruithof tries to reveal ‘the nerves of the time’ by deftly identifying social, psychological and ethical dilemmas. Observing, analysing, collecting, acting and reacting inform her thoughtful and playful work method, which does not at all detract from her serious approach as a social and political agent. In this time, Kruithof has formulated a highly idiosyncratic view of this world, one where the personal has become political. By continually navigating between the digital and physical experiential spheres, Kruithof investigates a collective state of mind that is not solely grounded in the material world, but more often in an amorphous one. She conteplates a world consisting of a relentless stream of edited, constructed and spliced-together images that have lost their credibility: resulting today in a reality that is thoroughly scripted and subject to permanent post-production. The scope of her world view extends from environmental pollution and the consequences of climate change to government surveillance practices, privacy to inequality and protest. From anonymity to signs of nervousness such as stress and exhaustion, sha- me and social discomfort, all in an effort to address a collective consciousness of human failing towards humanity itself and planet earth at large. Kruithof is acutely aware of her double role as image maker and image consumer. Just like the visual culture in which we live, her paradoxical layered work method is heart-warming and revealing, personal and universal, uplifting and oppressive, light-hearted and dystopian.

She has been working as an artist full-time since 2003 and currently lives alternately in Brussels, Berlin, Botopasi, Suriname and the Netherlands. Kruithof has had solo exhibitions in Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam, Centro de la Imagen Mexico City and Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Her work has also been included in the collections of SFMoMA in San Francisco, Museum Folkwang in Essen and Museum Voorlinden in Wassenaar. Kruithof published 15 books and she was selected for The Gallery of Honour of Dutch photography at Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam in 2021 and she won the public prize of the Volkskrant Beeldende Kunstprijs in 2016. Her most known project Universal Tongue is still intensively shown all over the world and has been exhibited in Museum Tinguely in Basel, Vooruit in Ghent and at WHOLE | United Queer Festival, Ferropolis, Gräfenhainichen, German