Dutch visual artist Joyce Overheul grew up in an environment where it is not self-evident that women were treated the same as men. From her sense of justice, she has always been politically interested in things like women’s rights, emancipation, feminism and activism, and Overheul now makes art about that. In a broader sense, Overheul is interested in how human behaviour comes about and how we as people influence each other.
Overheul creates artworks made of textiles, often based on photography. She works a lot with craft techniques that have long been dismissed as typical women’s hobbies, leisure activities. She combines this with politically charged subjects about women’s rights, emancipation and feminism, among others, to create a sharp contrast between the direct content and soft material. With soft-looking art, Overheul draws the visitor in while they do not always realise that the message is a political statement.
Overheul studied Fine Art at the HKU in Utrecht, followed by a master’s degree in Artistic Research at maHKU. Her work has widely been exhibited in The Netherlands and abroad, and she also creates commissioned work. Highlights being the solo exhibition Let’s Get Political at Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle, and the war memorial for resistance fighter Truus van Lier for the Municipality of Utrecht. In 2021, Waanders Kunst published the book ‘Let’s Get Political’ about the first ten years of her artistic practice.
© Photo by Sabine Metz.
