The Sculptor Mieke van Grinsven

Mieke van Grinsven -- Sculptures

Artist Profile

Mieke van Grinsven, was born in 1957 in the Netherlands, where she studied handicrafts at the Arts Academy in Arnhem. She is a very practical person who loves to create and for several years she thought making Crafts would be her thing.

She attended a Carpentry Cooperative in Oosterbeek before heading to Africa as a manager of a Crafts workshop in rural Zambia ( 1987-1992) and had her own leatherfactory during 8 years in Tanzania.(1995-2003). She finally found her material in which to express herself fully: ‘serpentine stone’, in 2003 in Tengenenge Zimbabwe.

Back in Arusha Tanzania, where she lives with her husband and two children, she sold her leather factory and decided to fully concentrate on sculpting.

Her work is ‘inspired by the people of Africa.’

The first years she was guided by the shapes of the serpentine stone to create her ‘smiling faces’. She did not have the intention to make torso’s but it just happened with the first two bodies she made. She found it amazing that a body without a head has so much expression.

She loves to work in her outdoor workshop and gallery in the acacia woods with the sounds of the birds and the village in the background. Sculpting has become such a part of her life that a day without it isn’t balanced.

Exhibitions

1997:    International Trade Fair, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

1998:    World Trade Fair, Nuremberg , Germany

1999:    International Film festival , Zanzibar, Tanzania

2000:    National History Museum, Arusha, Tanzania

2005:   Solo exhibition at her home MIBA Ltd. Outdoor Gallery, Arusha

2006:   Solo exhibition Cultural Heritage, Arusha

2007:   East African Arts Biennale , Dar es Salaam

2007:   Elewana Coffee lodge, solo exhibition, Arusha

What am up to now

My work is a celebration of my life her in Africa. I don't compare all the time, but as a European, I can't resist admiring the way African people deal with the hardships in life.

There is a natural earthyness, a roughness in all feelings and emotions. I admire especially the women whom many are strong and grounded, but at the same time connected to the universe. My sculptures are like a village , in which people communicate in different ways, but all have this heaven and earth dimension, 'like all of us'.

Contact The Artist

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Kaafiri Kariuki at the Creativity Gallery

Shades of Time: An exhibition by Kaafiri Kariuki at the Creativity Gallery National Museum of Kenya

Sculptures By Regions

Exhibitions

Conrad Botes at the KZNSA Gallery

Featured Artist Portfolio

Title: Making Ways
Name: Tabitha Wa Thuku
Country: Kenya
Medium: Mixed media on heavy canvas
Size: 149 X 140 cms
Click here to view