Babs Haenen

The ceramic work of artist Babs Haenen is typified by expressive and impressionistic qualities where colour, line and form all play an equal part. The painterly way in which she adorns her vessels demonstrates the way in which abstract painting inspires her, while landscape motifs such as rippling water are also recurring themes. To build her vessels, Haenen works with coloured porcelain slabs that she manipulates by hand.  The slabs are coloured with pigment and rolled to form thin ribbons that are deftly folded, cut and sculpted to form expressive, tactile works with a strong sense of movement; the notion of the vessel, be it bowl, vase or plate, is all but left behind.

Babs Haenen is a graduate of the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. She has taught extensively, won a number of prestigious awards including the Van Achterbergh Prize in 2020 and has undertaken several high-profile, public commissions. Her work can be found in the permanent collections of museums such as the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Boijmans-van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam; Carnegie Institute Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Cooper-Hewitt Museum and Museum of Art and Design, New York; Museum of Fine Art, Houston; Museum of Fine Art, Boston and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.