An archetypical explorer is deemed to be someone who pushes boundaries and embraces unexpected discoveries. Dedicated to art as her form of expression, Dutch artist Madelon Hooykaas has spent the past sixty years exploring new lands, cultures, aesthetics, and experimenting with multimedia. Her practice is shaped by contemplation, reflection, and a curiosity for and connection with different cultures and beliefs. Moreover, her strong convictions surrounding Nature and humanity’s stewardship role in preserving it, as well as pertaining to certain non-Western philosophies which support a balance between the human experience and the natural world, underlie her creative oeuvre.

‘The works make visible and palpable that which is present, but not always tangible. It is in this way that her art deepens our experience of the world. Time itself is investigated, real and experienced time, or energy as being at the basis of everything. It creates, but can also destroy. Energy refers to human energy too, in creation, the generation of new ideas, exchange and interaction. In this respect, Madelon Hooykaas’ installations allude to both reality and the individual within it, to the world as well as the production of reality and consciousness.’ - Kitty Zijlman (Professor Emiritus Contemporary Art History and Theory/World Art Sudies at Leiden University)