Liet Heringa (’s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands, 1966) and Maarten van Kalsbeek (Oegstgeest, The Netherlands, 1962) have been working as artists duo Heringa/Van Kalsbeek since 1998, they live and work in Amsterdam.
Their sculptures evolve out of a process of action and reaction: one continues where the other stops. Tranquil pieces of liquid synthetic resin, ceramic objects – artificial flowers, casts of corals, strange and warped objects – are fixed onto metal and wooden frames. As if they are painting in space. Heringa/Van Kalsbeek experience this continuous process of molding, curing, turning and molding once again, as a capricious adventure: when one gives the sculpture an unexpected twist, the other has to come up with an equally convincing move. This way a lamination emerges in their works, in a literal and figurative sense. The sculptures are the results of experiment and coincidence: a jumble of materials, colors and lines that form a coherent sculpture in their extremes. They are raw and beautiful at the same time, sculptures with neither beginning nor end. The work of Heringa/Van Kalsbeek is in a way a collage: different elements are put together and form a new shape, a new organism, a new landscape.
Their work is shown in museums in England, Germany, Italy, Korea and The Netherlands. Their work is represented in many collections all over the world. In 2007 they had a solo exhibition Cruel Bonsai, in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. This exhibition gave a good insight in the development of their work and was very well received by the critics and public.
Heringa/Van Kalsbeek draw their inspiration from the balance between the wonderful and the cruel sides of nature. The dead body of a zebra on the savanna, of which the rib cage becomes visible because vultures are rooting about in it. A prickly cactus, the pleasant inside of a tropical flower, blossoming Cherry trees in spring. But also: entangled fishing nets on a quayside, embroidered traditional costume, Asian wooden sculptures and 16th-17th century Dutch still life paintings. The flip between nature and culture is essential in our work; the transformation from art to a natural object and back again.
EDUCATION
1990 Ateliers ‘63, Haarlem, The Netherlands
1988 Middlesex Polytechnic School of Art, London, UK
1987 Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023 Springvloed (Spring Tide), Kunstmuseum The Hague, Den Haag,
The Netherlands
2023 Study for The Grey Tree (After Mondrian), BorzoGallery, Amsterdam,
The Netherlands
2022 Stains of Time, Celadon Terra Cotta, Alfred, New York, NY
2020 Made in Japan, Salon aan het Singel, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2019 Common ground 2: connect in color, Akzo Nobel Art Space, Amsterdam, The
Netherlands
2018 Kunsthandel P. de Boer, Heringa/Van Klasbeek/16th and 17th century paintings
2015 Night Catch, sculptures of Heringa/Van Kalsbeek, Stedelijk Museum Hertogenbosch
2013 Van Gogh Galerie, Zundert, The Netherlands
2011 Run Silent, Sugar City, Halfweg, The Netherlands
2010 Anna Klinkhammer, Galerie, Düsseldorf, Germany
PROLONG 2010, Lowlands Festival and Museum de Fundatie, Heino, The Netherlands
2009 Vegas Gallery, London, UK
PROLONG 2009, Lowlands Festival and Museum de Fundatie, Heino, The Netherlands
Country Trash, Museum de Fundatie, Heino, The Netherlands
2008 PROLONG 2008, Lowlands Festival and Museum de Fundatie, Heino, The Netherlands
2007 Cruel Bonsai-Heringa/Van Kalsbeek, Stedelijk Museum CS, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Bird Works, Museum Tongerlohuys, Roosendaal
2006 Galerie Nouvelles Images, Den Haag, The Netherlands
2005 Galerie Nouvelles Images, Den Haag, The Netherlands
Les Néerlandais Voyageurs, Ed van der Elsken, Roy Villevoye, Heringa/Van
Kalsbeek, Institut Néerlandais, Paris, France
2003 Galerie Nouvelles Images, Den Haag, The Netherlands
De Nederlandsche Bank, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2001 ABSORB, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo
Galerie Nouvelles Images, Den Haag, The Netherlands
2000 Haags Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag, The Netherlands
1998 Kunstvereniging Diepenheim, Diepenheim, The Netherlands
1997 Museum van Nagsael, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Galerie Nouvelles Images, Den Haag, The Netherlands
Bedekt Bloeiend, Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Arnhem, The Netherlands
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2021 Art Rotterdam, Borzo Gallery
2020-2023 Collection presentation, Kunstmuseum Den Haag
2020 Collection presentation, Kröller Müller Museum, Otterlo
Nabeeld, Park Platform for Visual Arts, Tilburg
2019 Innenraum, Koen Vermeule, Arjan van Helmond, Heringa/Van Kalsbeek, Ronald Zuurmond,
Galerie Anja Knoess, Köln, Germany
Aanwinsten 2018, De Nederlandsche Bank, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2018 Elspeth Diederix, The Miracle Garden, Stedelijk Museum Schiedam
Color & Abstraction, Textiel Museum, Tilburg
The Collection Stedelijk Base, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2017 So It Grows! An Intimate Eye, Collection Swagemakers, Centraal Museum, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Gallery Borzo-Art, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Well Made. In praise of the creative process, Kunsthal Kade, Amersfoort
2016 Fringes of Beauty, TextileMuseum, Tilburg
Renewed Past, Coda museum Apeldoorn
The ABC of Collecting, Stedelijk Museum Schiedam
2015 Paradijs, Buitenplaats Beeckestijn
Borzo, Art Rotterdam, The Netherlands
2014 Natuurkracht, Coda Museum Apeldoorn
Borzo, Art Brussels, Belgium
Borzo, Raw Art Fair, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Facing Nature, Collectie De Heus - Zomer, Museum Belvédère, Heerenveen- Oranjewoud
2013 Art Duo Art, Nieuw Dakota, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
The Multiple Show 3, Vous Etes Ici, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
De Grote Kunstshow, Stadschouwburg Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Cobra tot Dumas, Collectie De Heus-Zomer, Singer Museum Laren
Tefaf Maastricht, Galerie Borzo
Vanitas: Contemporary Reflections, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow, Russia
Expose, Kröller-Müller museum, Otterlo, The Netherlands
Verlangen Naar Volmaaktheid, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, The Netherlands
2012 Collector’s Items No.4: ‘Reconnaissance – Dutch Collectors’ Eyes & Some of the Places They Look’
Dutch Cultural Pop-Up Projects, London, UK
The Courtauld Institute’s East Wing Exhibition, London, UK
2011 Volta, Basel, Vegas Gallery, Londen, UK
Atelier 60 Kunstenaarsportretten, Vishal, Haarlem, The Netherlands
Art Amsterdam, Vegas Gallery, London, UK
London Art Fair, Vegas Gallery, London, UK
2010 Rood, Tropen museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Virgin, Seoul, South Korea
Art Amsterdam, Vegas Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Andrea Lehmann, Heringa/Van Kalsbeek, Rik Meijers, Aschenbach & Hofland Galleries, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2009 New Loves, recent acquisitions, Keramiekmuseum Princessehof Leeuwarden
Collectors’ Items, The Dutch Cultural Pop-Up Space, London, UK
I am by birth a Genovese, Vegas Gallery, London, UK
I am by birth a Genovese, Forde Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland
Art Minded V: Ron Klein Breteler Collection, Stedelijk Museum Schiedam
Heringa/Van Kalsbeek at Art Brussels Aschenbach Hofland Galleries
Ad Infinitum Part I, Vegas Gallery, London, UK
Works of Heringa/Van Kalsbeek at Frans Leidelmeijer, TEFAF, Maastricht, The Netherlands
2008 Art Leaves Home: Otto L. Schaap Content Art Consumer, Stedelijk Museum Schiedam
2007 Contour / continuïteit, Museum Het Prinsenhof, Delft, The Netherlands
2006 Van de Velde vleugel weer open; collectie schittert als nooit te voren, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, The Netherlands
De collectie Sanders, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, The Netherlands
Mysterieus Celadon, Princessehof, Leeuwarden
Attese Biennale Ceramica Arte Contemporanea, Albisola (It.)
2005 HxBxD = De Rabo Kunstcollectie, Haags Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag, The Netherlands
Trans-Ceramic-Art,The 3rd World Ceramic Biennale 2005, South Korea
2004 Keine Angst vor Schönheit, Heringa/Van Kalsbeek, Sandra Munzel, Michael Nitsche,
Gerhard-Marcks-Haus, Bremen, Germany
Bodytalk, Beelden aan Zee, Scheveningen
Bloemen van verlangen, Rijksmuseum Twenthe, Enschede
Van Airut tot Uppik, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, The Netherlands
2002 Blur, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
KunstRAI, Galerie Nouvelles Images, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Best Verzorgde Boeken, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2001 Slib, Dutch and British artists working with ceramics,
The Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich, UK
Slib, Dutch and British artists working with ceramics, Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, The Netherlands
Contemporary Art from The Netherlands, European Central Bank, Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany
2000 Flaming Youth, 10 jaar tentoonstellingen Jonge Kunstenaars,
Galerie Nouvelles Images, Den Haag, The Netherlands
KunstRAI, Galerie Nouvelles Images, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Appel van Newton, Lokaal 01, Breda
Huiskamers? Schatkamers! Kunst van Vrienden, Paleis Lange Voorhout, Den Haag, The Netherlands
1999 KunstRAI, Galerie Nouvelles Images, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
West Art of Now Award, KunstRAI, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Nederlandse Beeldhouwkunst, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, The Netherlands
Wereld van Verschil, Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Arnhem
Mutatis Mutandis, Stedelijk Museum, Zwolle
VSB prijs Beeldende Kunsten, Schiedam
Bloemen en Herrie, Galerie Waalkens, Finsterwolde
Dorothea von Stetten-Kunstpreis, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn, Germany
1998 Tuinsculptuur, Vleeshal, Haarlem, The Netherlands
1997 Aanwinsten, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, The Netherlands
Klein Sculptuur, Stedelijke Musea, Gouda
COMMISSIONS
2023 Hermès, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2020 Hart van Austerlitz, Austserlitz
Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Sculpture for garden - private collectors, Wassenaar
Hermès, Tokyo, Japan
2019 Sculpture for garden - private collectors, Portugal
2017 Sculpture in honor of Jakoba Mulder, Beatrixpark, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2015 Textile Museum Tilburg
2012 De Stee, Teteringen
2009 Arcadis Nederland, Amersfoort
Hogewey, Weesp
2006 ABN AMRO, IJsseltoren, Zwolle
2005 Theodoor Gilissen, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2002 European Patent Office, Rijswijk
Basisschool De Rank, Sassenheim (Kunst en Bedrijf)
2001 Waterschap Veluwe, Apeldoorn
Gemeente Amstelveen
1999 Hogeschool Utrecht, Faculteit Gezondheidszorg
1998 P.I. te Ter Apel (Rijksgebouwendienst)
1995 Rijksinrichting voor jongens, de Hartelborgt, Spijkenisse (Rijksgebouwendienst)
1993 Beeld voor de BKB, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
1992 Belastingkantoor Alkmaar (Rijksgebouwendienst)
COLLECTIONS
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, The Netherlands
Stedelijk Museum ‘s-Hertogenbosch
Kunstmuseum, Den Haag, The Netherlands
Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Arnhem
Stedelijk Museum, Schiedam
MuseumgoudA, Gouda
Princessehof, Leeuwarden
Museum de Fundatie, Heino
Vincent van GoghHuis, Zundert
Textiel Museum, Tilburg
Alfred Ceramic Art Museum, NYSCC, Alfred, NY
World Ceramic Biennale, South Korea
Akzo Nobel Art Foundation, Arnhem
ABN AMRO Art Foundation, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Rabobank Kunstcollectie
Interpolis, Tilburg
Achmea Kunstcollectie
Minsterie van Buitenlandse Zaken
De Nederlandsche Bank, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Houthoff Buruma, Amsterdam and Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Arcadis Nederland
DSM
Theodoor Gillissen
Aegon
Ahold Kunst Stichting
UMC Utrecht
Achmea
Andaz
LeasePlan
European Patent Office
ABP Investements
VUMC Amsterdam
Private Collections