Women Artists We Love ❤️ Lisette van Hoogenhuyze
About Lisette van Hoogenhuyze
Lisette van Hoogenhuyze (b. 1991, the Netherlands) is a visual artist who lives between Amsterdam and Lisbon.
Traveling frequently herself, Lisette researches identity, collective memory, and language.Via various layers and colour arrangements derived from different visual motives, Lisette takes you on a journey through different approaches to contemporary (sub)cultures in a recognisable yet unfamiliar way. Crossing invisible borders that have never felt more present.
Who is Lisette? Can you walk us through your journey and how art came into your life?
I once had a workshop led by quite a famous artist, and he asked us “What was the first time you made a piece of art?” And that question stuck with me till this day. I remember thinking long and hard and realised it must have been the ‘car’ I had built for my rabbit. It was made of two skateboards, a palet, the metal framework top of the rabbits cage and bamboo leaves. It had a big purple and blue skipping rope attached to it so I could pull it over the streets. I wish I had a video of that performance, but it only remains in my memory.
I have always been quite restless and from a young age I loved to build and create and I had a massive imagination. After a bachelors degree in Art History I realised I needed to shift to the practical side and explore this creativity in Art School. I graduated in 2019 and have been working as an independent artist since!
Your colourful artworks make us go deep into our souls - How has your identity as a woman shaped your artistic vision and practice?
Identifying as a woman is important in my work. Especially after having a child, whom will turn 1 soon, I feel how beautiful, strong, loving, caring, passionate a little bit insane and wild a woman is. It gave me a lot more patience with myself and even more admiration for the female community than I already had. A woman is so resilient and even after all the injustice we still face today, we are so incredible! We need to celebrate ourselves and each other and I try to also express that within my work. Unfortunately we do not always do that for each other and so we need to be reminded of that.
In your experience, how has the conversation around gender in the art world evolved over your career, and what changes do you still hope to see?
I think I need to start with the changes: More women represented in shows and also in the art world the gender pay gap should be closed! Also, I think about how art history and its predominantly male gaze has shaped our current vision on the world and on art. I like to see how more and more female artists are not afraid to show a different form or type of art than the one that is logically aligned within the path the male artists created. So, for example, I read an interesting interview of the Dutch artist Vera Gulikers who works a lot with pastel colours and soft shapes.
After her (male) teacher told her he got a nasty taste in his mouth from her color palette, she started to use these colours as a form of protest. It is often that the use of softer colours, shapes or forms are seen as naive, childish or immature, where male art is more often associated with monumental, rough and strong. Who decides that? Let’s change that narrative.
Our top selection of Lisette's works
