Carolein Smit (born 1960) is a Dutch

ceramic art Ceramic art is art made from ceramic materials, including clay. It may take forms including artistic pottery, including tableware, tiles, figurines and other sculpture. As one of the plastic arts, ceramic art is one of the visual arts. Whi ...

sculptor whose work often includes animals or skeletons.

Life and education

Smit was born on 22 October 1960 in

Amersfoort Amersfoort () is a city and municipality in the province of Utrecht, Netherlands, about 20 km from the city of Utrecht and 40 km south east of Amsterdam. As of 1 December 2021, the municipality had a population of 158,531, making it the second- ...

. She was educated at the

AKV St. Joost St. Joost School of Art and Design (formerly Academy of Art and Design St. Joost, Dutch ''Akademie voor Kunst en Vormgeving St. Joost, Breda'') is a Dutch academy of art and design based in Breda and 's-Hertogenbosch. The school is part of Avans ...

Breda Breda () is a city and municipality in the southern part of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Brabant. The name derived from ''brede Aa'' ('wide Aa' or 'broad Aa') and refers to the confluence of the rivers Mark and Aa. Breda has ...

from 1979 to 1984, studying graphics and lithography. For the next thirteen years she works as an illustration artist for various magazines and newspapers until a 3-months residency at the European Ceramic Work Center (ECWC) in

Den Bosch s-Hertogenbosch (), colloquially known as Den Bosch (), is a city and municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 157,486. It is the capital of the province of North Brabant and its fourth largest by population. The city is south of th ...

in 1995 during which she falls in love with clay. As of this moment, she chooses

ceramics A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...

as her favorite medium of expression and employs transgressive beauty that contradicts commonly held convictions about what makes something appealing. Her fascination with contrasts: the ugly but adorable, or the frightening but fragile, provides a reminder about the vulnerability and impermanence of life, and the inevitability of death.

Career

Smit is known for figurative "enigmatic sculptures" depicting ceramic animals like dogs, hares or rats. Her sculptures satirically play with the emotions such as hate, love, exuberance, alienation and unresolved emotions, using highly imaginative representations of skeletons, cats or babies. She creates characters with over active sentiment, inspired by themes from classic mythology and biblical tales, such as greed, power and impotence, perishability and death. Her sculptures are rich in symbolism and she often uses elements familiar to

vanities ''Vanities'' is a comedy-drama stage production written by Jack Heifner. The story centers on the lives and friendship of three Texas cheerleaders starting from high school in 1963, continuing through college as sorority sisters in 1968, and end ...

, such as skulls, skeletons, small bones of animals. Much like in the 16th and 17th century

Dutch Golden Age The Dutch Golden Age ( nl, Gouden Eeuw ) was a period in the history of the Netherlands, roughly spanning the era from 1588 (the birth of the Dutch Republic) to 1672 (the Rampjaar, "Disaster Year"), in which Dutch trade, science, and Dutch art, ...

Vanitas A ''vanitas'' (Latin for 'vanity') is a symbolic work of art showing the transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death, often contrasting symbols of wealth and symbols of ephemerality and death. Best-known are ''van ...

paintings, that were a type of symbolic artwork especially associated with

still life A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, m ...

painting in Flanders and the Netherlands, her work is meant to symbolise temporary presence but with a touch of irony. Three of Smit's works are in the collection of the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, the world's largest museum of the decorative arts. In 2003, she had a solo exhibition at the Keramion, a ceramics museum and center in

Frechen Frechen (; Ripuarian: ''Frechem'') is a town in the Rhein-Erft District, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Frechen was first mentioned in 877. It is situated at the western Cologne city border. It is the site of the 1257 Battle of Frechen betwee ...

, Germany. In 2010, over 60 of her sculptures were on display in a solo exhibition at the

Kunsthal The Kunsthal ( en, Art Hall) is an art museum in Rotterdam. It opened in 1992. Overview The museum is situated in the Museumpark of Rotterdam next to the Natuurhistorisch Museum Rotterdam, and in the vicinity of the Museum Boijmans Van Beunin ...

museum in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

. The exhibition lasted over three months and was the first major retrospective of her work. A review of the exhibition in ''Beelden Magazine'' stated that Smit produces "striking ceramic sculptures in which a bizarre baroque figuration results in contemporary, quirky images".

Technics

Carolein Smit uses white

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

that contains very little chamotte in order to not having granular material on the

surface A surface, as the term is most generally used, is the outermost or uppermost layer of a physical object or space. It is the portion or region of the object that can first be perceived by an observer using the senses of sight and touch, and is t ...

of her works. The

sculptures Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

are hollow, with slabs of

, and hand-modeled. Pieces like the

hare Hares and jackrabbits are mammals belonging to the genus ''Lepus''. They are herbivores, and live solitarily or in pairs. They nest in slight depressions called forms, and their young are able to fend for themselves shortly after birth. The ge ...

with an

umbrella An umbrella or parasol is a folding canopy supported by wooden or metal ribs that is usually mounted on a wooden, metal, or plastic pole. It is designed to protect a person against rain or sunlight. The term ''umbrella'' is traditionally used ...

and

animals Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and go through an ontogenetic stage in ...

that have

hairs Hair is a protein filament that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Hair is one of the defining characteristics of mammals. The human body, apart from areas of glabrous skin, is covered in follicles which produce thick terminal and f ...

are all made separately by hand and added one by one. The pieces are very fragile when not yet fired at 1020 degrees, but relatively strong when glazed, as everything sticks with the glaze in between.

Cabinet of curiosities

The cabinet of curiosities which has been considered as the first museum, was the place where the collectors showed their objects that sometimes could be wierd or even terrifyng. The creation of Carolein Smit expresses her love for the cabinet of curiosities. She is obessed with the multiple aspects shown in this type of collection which contains all images related to art but also to the scientific and other broader areas. The exceptional, strange, and rare objects reveal the supernatural to restrain the whims of nature. For the

ceramist Ceramic art is art made from ceramic materials, including clay. It may take forms including artistic pottery, including tableware, tiles, figurines and other sculpture. As one of the plastic arts, ceramic art is one of the visual arts. Whil ...

, these pieces suggest order and warn us of the futur chaos at the same time. Their images are served to scare people and also to confine the fear. Carolein seeks to demonstrate in her ceramics this ambivalence that makes the viewer look with admire and disgust at the same time.

Bestiary

The

bestiary A bestiary (from ''bestiarum vocabulum'') is a compendium of beasts. Originating in the ancient world, bestiaries were made popular in the Middle Ages in illustrated volumes that described various animals and even rocks. The natural history a ...

is the theme that often occurs in the cabinet of curiosities, and also frequents Smit's artworks. The

dogs The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...

rabbits Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit specie ...

, sheeps,

monkeys Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as the simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes, which constitutes an incomple ...

owls Owls are birds from the Order (biology), order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly Solitary animal, solitary and Nocturnal animal, nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vi ...

, etc. are all given a glittering skin which makes them the unreal and attractive. Smit works also carefully with the details, like the eyes and the fur of her raptors,

rats Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents. Species of rats are found throughout the order Rodentia, but stereotypical rats are found in the genus ''Rattus''. Other rat genera include ''Neotoma'' (pack rats), ''Bandicota'' (bandicoot ...

and

pugs The Pug is a breed of dog originally from China, with physically distinctive features of a wrinkly, short-muzzled face and curled tail. The breed has a fine, glossy coat that comes in a variety of colors, most often light brown (fawn) or blac ...

. In her

exhibition An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibition ...

Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature The Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature (Museum of Hunting and Nature) is a private museum of hunting and nature located in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris, France. The museum is served by the Rambuteau Paris Métro station. Exhibits focus on the ...

in Paris
''Dents ! Crocs ! Griffes !''
her animals are being gathered and thus the visitors can see and "read" the

of Carolein Smit.

Anatomical Figures

The cabinet of curiosities is a place where the art and the science confront each other and are harmonized. Medical oddities, tumors, anatomical and pathological specimens can all be found in the cabinets. Inspired by this way of collecting and showing objects, Smit creats numerous

skeletons A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of an animal. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside ...

and skinned figures as a demonstration of the combindation of

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

and

science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

, beautiful and dreadful.

Biblical Scenes

Smit once said that not only she treated anatomical objects as source of her inspiration, but also she took regularly the

devotion Devotion or Devotions may refer to: Religion * Faith, confidence or trust in a person, thing, or concept * Anglican devotions, private prayers and practices used by Anglican Christians * Buddhist devotion, commitment to religious observance * Cat ...

and biblical scenes as

image An image is a visual representation of something. It can be two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or somehow otherwise feed into the visual system to convey information. An image can be an artifact, such as a photograph or other two-dimensiona ...

for her

. The figures can be monstrous and at the same time like someone coaxing and appealing. They are the

talismans A talisman is any object ascribed with religious or magical powers intended to protect, heal, or harm individuals for whom they are made. Talismans are often portable objects carried on someone in a variety of ways, but can also be installed perm ...

that keep us from misfortune and

death Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...

Exhibitions

Museum exhibitions 2022
''Dents ! Crocs ! Griffes !''

à Paris , Paris, France * ''Secret Garden'', with Gebroeders Miedema, Stedelijk Museum Kampen , Netherlands 2021 *''Les Flammes : L'Âge de la Céramique'',

Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris (, Paris' Museum of Modern Art) or MAM Paris, is a major municipal museum dedicated to modern and contemporary art of the 20th and 21st centuries, including monumental murals by Raoul Dufy, Gaston Suisse, and Henri ...

, Paris, France 2020 * ''Bye Bye Future! L'art de voyager dans le temps'', Musée royal de Mariemont, Belgium 2019 * ''Zarte Flügel'', dicke Brummer, Museum Keramion, Frechen, Germany * ''Raketstart'', Stedelijk Museum Breda, Breda, Netherlands * Drents Museum à Assen, Netherlans 2018 * ''L'amour fou'',

Grassi Museum The Grassi Museum is a building complex in Leipzig, home to three museums: the Ethnography Museum, Musical Instruments Museum, and Applied Arts Museum. It is sometimes known as the "Museums in the Grassi", or as the "New" Grassi Museum (to di ...

, Leipzig, Germany * ''Myth and Mortality, The fairytale world of Carolein Smit'',

Victoria and Albert museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

, London, United Kingdom 2016 * ''Sexy Ceramics'', Museum het Princessenhof, Leeuwarden, Netherlands * ''Ceramix, Bonnefantenmuseum'', Maastricht, Allemagne & La Maison Rouge, Paris, France 2015 * ''Skeletten'', Museum Beelden aan Zee, Scheveningen, Netherlands * ''Queensize - Female Artists from the Olbricht Collection'', Arnhems Museum, Netherlands Exhibitions 2022
''FRAGILES''

Galerie Da-End
Paris, France * ''Eden'', James Freeman Gallery, Londres, United Kingdom
''Μέδουσα / Medusa''Galerie Da-End
Paris, France * ''Bloodhound & Friends'', Galerie Fontana, Amsterdam, Netherlands
''Cabinet de céramique contemporaine''Jonathan F. Kugel
Brussels, Belgium
''Cabinet Da-End XI - Asile in wonderland''Galerie Da-End
Paris, France 2021 * ''Nyctophilia'', James Freeman Gallery, Londres, United Kingdom
''Cabinet Da-End X''Galerie Da-End
Paris, France 2020 * ''Beyond the vessel'', Messums Wiltshire, Tisbury, United Kingdom * ''Vanitas, Tiendschuur'', Tegelen, Netherlands 2019 * ''Beyond the vessel'', Mesher, Istanbul, Turkey * ''The child in me'', Istanbul Biennale, Turkey * ''Vanitas'', Tiendschuur, Tegelen, Netherlands * ''Galeristes'', wit
Galerie Da-End
Carreau du Temple, Paris, France 2018 * ''Carolein Smit and Ray Caesar'', James Freeman Gallery, London, United Kingdom * TEFAF, with Galerie Patrice Trigano de Paris (theme: The Body), Maastricht * TEFAF, with Galerie Michael Haas de Berlin, Maastricht 2017
''Paizô''
duo show with Mike MacKeldey
Galerie Da-End
Paris, France * ''Galeristes'', wit
Galerie Da-End
Carreau du Temple, Paris, France
''Cabinet Da-End VII''Galerie Da-End
Paris, France * Art Paris, avec Flatland Gallery d'Amsterdam, Paris, France * First Biennale of De heilige Driehoek, Oosterhout, Pays-Bas 2016 * ''Galeristes'', wit
Galerie Da-End
Carreau du Temple, Paris, France * ''Golem, Carolein Smit'' (Solo Show), Galerie Michèle Hayem, Paris, France
''Cabinet Da-End VI''Galerie Da-End
Paris, France * ''Omnia vanitas'', WCC-BF Gallery, Les Anciens Abattoirs, Mons, Belgique 2015 * ''Lʼamour fou'' (Solo Show), Flatland Gallery, Amsterdam, Pays-Bas * ''Objectif Terre'', Biennale internationale de Céramique de Châteauroux, Châteauroux, France

Collections

* Grassimuseum, Leipzig, Germany *Olbricht Collection, Germany *Reydon Weiss Collection, Bremen, Germany *Asante Collection, Basel, Switzerland *Bouwfonds, Hoevelaken, Netherlands *Knoll Design Nederland, Netherlands *Interpolis, Tilburg, Netherlands *FSGroep, Hilversum, Netherlands *Collection Eneco Energie, Rotterdam, Netherlands *Collection J. Schwartz, New York, USA *

, London, United Kingdom *Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe, Germany *Scheringa Museum for Realism, Spanbroek, Netherlands *Museum Beelden aan Zee, Scheveningen, Netherlands *Fuled International Museum (FLICAM) Fuping, China *

Drents Museum The Drents Museum () is an art and history museum in Assen, Drenthe, in the Netherlands. The museum was opened in 1854. It has a collection of prehistorical artifacts, applied art, and visual art. The museum also has temporary exhibitions. In 20 ...

, Assen, Netherlands *Collection Ömer Koç, Istanbul, Turkey Source:https://www.caroleinsmit.com/CV

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smit, Carolein 1960 births Living people Dutch sculptors People from Amersfoort