Visual artist Tanja Smeets (62) has taken over the spaces of De Utrecht. From the cupboards on the ground floor and in the new extension, she creates organisms that appear to grow and spread, resembling fungi, corals and vines. The difference is that they are made from textiles, ceramics and ordinary objects from the DIY shop. The exhibition The Great In-Between opens on 11 April and runs until 26 September.
Every year, De Utrecht invites an artist to create work inspired by the building, a richly decorated Art Nouveau building on Tweebaksmarkt in Leeuwarden. Following Anke Roder, Maartje Korstanje, Kim Boske, Pieter Bijwaard and Tjibbe Hooghiemstra, this year it is Tanja Smeets’ turn. She uses a wide range of techniques to make her work appear to ‘grow’ through a space and has a particular fondness for everyday materials such as coffee cups, leaf guards, cable ties and frying baskets. All that matters is that the material has the potential to transform into an organic structure.
The cupboards in the former life insurance office immediately caught Smeets’ attention. Behind their doors, painted with organic motifs, she creates fungi from grey felt, cable ties and leaf guards. Frying baskets filled and covered with porcelain spill over the edges of the shelves like solidified lava. Aerial roots reach out for air.
At De Utrecht, Smeets is using meat netting for the first time, trapping ceramic fungi inside it. The long nets wind their way like vines through the stairwell, from the Platform to the Top. Here and there, they take hold of the walls.
At the heart of Smeets’ work is her exploration of a space. She then selects from an extensive range of materials and techniques, from embroidery and modelling to soldering and weaving, and from clay and wool to metal and plastic. The results have a distinctly science-fiction quality, bringing together both the delicate and the unsettling.
The exhibition also includes a short documentary about Smeets’ creative process and the book The Great In-Between, the sixth volume in De Utrecht’s series of art books.
Thirty numbered copies of The Great In-Between include a unique ceramic artwork by Tanja Smeets.
Smeets lives and works in Utrecht. She studied at ArtEZ University of the Arts in Arnhem and has taken part in residencies in the Netherlands, China and South Korea. Her work has been shown at Manifesta 15 in Barcelona (2024), the Gyeonggi International Ceramic Biennale in Icheon, South Korea, Kunsthal KAdE in Amersfoort, Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, Keramiekmuseum Princessehof in Leeuwarden, the Henan Museum in Zhengzhou, TextielMuseum in Tilburg, Centraal Museum in Utrecht, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam and the Museum of Arts and Design in New York. Her work is held in the collections of the Henan Museum, TextielMuseum, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen and Centraal Museum.
De Utrecht was originally a branch office of the Utrecht life insurance company. The listed building, designed by architects Alexander Kropholler (1881–1973) and Jan Frederik Staal (1879–1940), has recently been renovated and extended with a new addition. Borren Staalenhoef Architecten has used a series of interconnected, tilted triangles to link the ground floor to the attic via the dormer window. On the exterior, the roof has been given a striking skin of ceramic elements developed in collaboration with Koninklijke Tichelaar Makkum. Bronze-glazed ‘trays’ in five different designs give the historic building a futuristic twist, with a nod to the exuberance of Kropholler and Staal.
