Marieke Bolhuis

Marieke Bolhuis creates emotionally charged, intuitive sculptures that blend mythology, psychology, and humor. Her evolving forms challenge the notion of perfection and embrace transformation.

SHE is GIANT (2023) lives up to its name. The work portrays a female centaur with three ochre-colored legs and massive hooves. Her head is crowned with blue manes, her gaze fixed on the horizon. It is an equestrian statue from a female perspective—powerful and fierce, yet also vulnerable and inwardly beautiful.

Marieke Bolhuis studied painting at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam and the AKI in Enschede. After graduating, her desire to work spatially led her to create installations. Eventually, the human figure emerged in her work as a raw, elemental presence, and she began making sculptures. She does not sculpt from models or plans. Her process is intuitive, physical, and emotionally driven. She uses materials from all eras, and more recently, she has placed a strong emphasis on sustainability.

Her second sculpture, I want to embrace you (2025), is therefore made of cork. Rarely do you encounter a sculpture with so many layers: the cork, the tree with a whitewashed base, the twisted figure struck by a bolt of motion, the suggestion of Mary—and most of all, the helpless aluminum arms slung over the figure’s head, not strong enough to truly hold you, yet appearing so powerful as they protectively arch above her. And there is more. Bolhuis enjoys blending the animal and plant worlds with the human, in the hope that these hybrids can help make the world a little better.

She says: “What would that do to us? A bit more local, calmer, slower, more plant-like—if we could once again see ourselves as part of nature, silently sliding into our rightful place within it.”
Her series of flower-people, Starting point, YOU are here, fits seamlessly into this idea. “Why not start today?” she asks.

What makes Bolhuis particularly relevant today is her commitment to transformation. In a world obsessed with clarity and permanence, she advocates for ambiguity and change.

With SHE is GIANT, Bolhuis also contributes to a contemporary vision of womanhood. A similar sculpture was installed in Haarlem: a GIANT Centaur GIRL, the body of a sturdy pony in full gallop, heavy boots, and the fierce head of a young girl. Predecessors of this figure were the Sisters, shown at ARTZuid in 2021, between whom visitors could stand to feel sheltered, empowered, and seen.

These sculptures do not sit still. They are alive—and they talk back.

Her language is messy, bold, and emotionally raw. Legs and torsos resemble battered beams. There is shyness in the work, as well as humor—but above all, Bolhuis shows that vulnerability can be a form of strength.