Bio
Gretske Doornebal (born in Woerden, the Netherlands, 1987) is a conceptual artist, graduated in 2022 from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. She has a background in mental health care and is still active in this field in addition to her art practice.
She works with different media and makes installations, sculptures, drawings, paintings, sometimes in combination with audio. She likes to be playful and is always open to experimenting with new media and/or techniques. On a regular basis she incorporates language into her work.
Gretske is interested in the stories of living beings (often people, not always), objects and ideas. Who are they? What do they have to say? That which or who is rejected and or disregarded by society has her attention. She seeks cooperation with ‘the unimportant’. She says about this: “We meet. We work and play together. We influence each other and together we create a new story”.
Both in mental health care as a recovery coach and as an artist, she creates space for trying, failing, losing, searching, playing, deconstructing and not knowing, because she believes that this can offer a cooperative and surprising way of being in this world.
Coming from a conservative Christian background, questions about giving meaning to the world and how these are internalized and externalized are subjects of interest to her. Gretske is always looking for interaction and does projects on the interface of psychology, art and giving meaning to the world around us.
In addition to her personal practice, she is part of the MONDAG collectief. An artist collective of former classmates, founded after graduating from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy.
Artist statement
I am because we are
entangled in a ‘dance’ with living beings, objects, materials, interventions and ideas which I call ‘the other(s)’
Meeting ‘the other’ intrigues me
It may open new perspectives and/or possibilities
I declare the importance of the little, the vulnerable itself
Make room for trying, failing, losing, searching, deconstructing, unbecoming and not knowing.
I’m always in conversation with ‘the other(s)’
hope to be surprised by them
Work grows organically
till this playful conversation might be firm enough to stand on its own.
Inspirations to come to my artist statement come from the African philosophy ‘Ubuntu’, Jacques Lacan, Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, Jack Halberstam, Jesus and Federico Campagna.
CV
Exhibitions/Projects
2025 Group exhibition 5# with MONDAG collectief, Vrij Paleis, Amsterdam
2024 Group exhibition ORDER! with MONDAG collectief, Kunstlijn Haarlem, Het Hoofdkantoor, Haarlem
2024 Studio Sale with MONDAG collectief, Amsterdam
2024 Solo exhibition ‘Onhandigheid in Coronatijd’, Café Averechts, Utrecht
2023 Group exhibition #2 with MONDAG collectief, Amsterdam
2023 – Poëziepoli, collaboration with Gerda Blees, designing and creating an attractive and surprising pop-up setting where Gerda Blees (poet) writes poems for visitors, patients and employees of the UMC Utrecht on the spot
2022 Graduation Show 2022, Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam
2021 Group exhibition Si Si Spex #11, Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam
2020 Group exhibition, Unbetween, Edges of distance, Dogtime, Online Show, Online Show, broadcasted form Not Yet SHEBANG, Amsterdam
2019 Group exhibition, Unbetween – The Luminous noise of nothing and all, Not Yet SHEBANG, Amsterdam
2018 Contribution of the students of Jonas Ohlsson to the exhibition “Frankenstein” at De Vishal, Haarlem
Subsidy
2023 Stimuleringsfonds, Startsubsidie vormgeving, project; Poëziepoli with Gerda Blees
Active member
2023 – MONDAG collectief, Amsterdam
2024 – Stichting/ broedplek Uranus Cultuurlab 3, Utrecht
2024 – Platform BK
Publication/ links
2024 https://www.kunstlijnhaarlem.nl/expositie/order/
2022 https://www.lost-painters.nl/eindexamen-expositie-rietveld-amsterdam-2022/
2022 https://rietveldacademie.nl/en/page/1027011/gretske-doornebal
2022 https://graduation2022.dogtime.org
Education
2017 – 2022 Gerrit Rietveld Academie Amsterdam, Bachelor of Fine Arts & Design (BA)
2016 – 2017 Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht, Basic Education year Fine Art
2006 – 2010 Christelijke Hogeschool Ede, Social Work (BA)
Other
2023 – 2024 Participated Power-up Mondriaan Fonds
Experience Social Work
(Mental health- addiction care, forensic psychiatry and care for the disabled (mentally and physically) – often with complex behavior)
2018 – Herstelcoach | Lister | Beschermd Verblijf
2015 – 2018 Maatschappelijk werker/ Werkcoach/ Ondersteund Trajectmanager | Leger des Heils MN | Domus(+) de Hoek
2013 – 2015 Woon- persoonlijk begeleider/ werkcoach |Leger des Heils MN| Domus(+) de Hoek
2012 – 2013 Sociotherapeut/ |Leger des Heils Gelderland | Woon & Werk Training
2011 – 2012 Flex worker | Leger des Heils Gelderland
2008 – 2011 Flex worker |Zorguitzendbureau Wean B.V.
If you would like to know more, have questions or perhaps ideas for a new project, please send an email to: mail@gretske.nl
