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Making your way through the world as a human being requires constant reconsideration of your position in relation to your surroundings.
Fellow breathing specimens, objects, a space: they all exist in relation to you and vice versa. And it is in this relation, between perceiving and being perceived, between moving forward and looking back, between you and me, where we find the essence of being human. In her practice, Liza Wolters recognises and investigates the value of this liminal space.

She does this by consciously taking on the role of the artist-errant. While she roves, she observes and captures her surroundings in photographs, on video, and in words. Coincidental temporarities can appear as if they’re staged, as Liza looks for the balance between the recognizable aspects of a place or situation and their abstraction in her work. Nevertheless, these are very much real finds, interwoven with her own memories and associations.

These elements lay the foundation of her work: an ever-growing archive of images and text that unfolds in a constant arrangement and rearrangement of material. In exhibitions, publications, collaborations, and installations, materials from the archive are juxtaposed with observations recorded on location and in response to the situation. In these scenographic interventions,  individual fragments temporarily come together as a new momentum. The chosen titles in her work are based on conversations and slips of the tongue from herself and others.

Liza Wolters’ work can be seen as an ongoing process of arranging, analysing, and archiving—a fluid place of storage. A method to understand the world, to interrogate positions, and to explore other ways of seeing.
This in turn always gives rise to new dialogues with her surroundings, with fellow artists, with her public; with fellow humans. 

- Text by Rianne Zijderveld

 


b. 1992, currently living in Rotterdam
info@lizawolters.com
instagram


selected exhibitions


2023
  • Launch project and one-off exhibition of ‘Orchestrating Coincidence’ icw Hilde Onis at NieuwCharlois, Rotterdam (NL)


2022
  • Parkstad Limburg Prijs, exhibition (30.10.22 - 15.01.23) at SCHUNCK*, together with Floor Martens, Mickey Yang, Mike Moonen, Morena Bamberger, Quinn Zeljak, Vera Gulikers and William Ludwig Lutgens, Heerlen (NL)
  • Ornamenting the Home, a site-specific installation at A Shop Called LIFE, icw Katrein Breukers, 19.02 - 05.03, Rotterdam (NL)

2021
  • Groupshow ‘Splintered Thoughts and Fragile Plots’ curated by Tiiu Meiner and Rawad Baaklini, during Noorderlicht International Photo Festival
  • Expo6 - videowork in window of Concordia, Enschede, 20-08 - 07.11
  • 24/7 window exhibition for the ‘Raamwerk Project’ of NEStudio’s, 03.09 - 01.11
  • open studio with Katrein Breukers during Art Rotterdam, 3&4 July, collaboration ‘Ornamenting the Home’ (preview)
  • ‘toevluchtsoord’, work period with Raquel Vermunt and others at the Hilton Art Lab in March

2020 
  • Solo exhibition ‘...AND ALL OF A SUDDEN SHE PUT A STONE IN MY MOUTH’ at Het Noordbrabants museum, 03.10 - 13.12.2020

2019
  • Work period and exhibition ‘Try-Out’ at the graphic workplace in the Hague, together with Iliada Charalambous, Tobias Lengkeek, Roland Spitzer, Jason Terlouw, Mickey Yang and Lisa Blaauwbroek. Curated by Lisa Blaauwbroek
  • Event ’TENT op BEZOEK’ , initiated by programme maker Gyonne Goedhoop from TENT
    Event ’TENT op BEZOEK’ , initiated by programme maker Gyonne Goedhoop from TENT
    Event ’TENT op BEZOEK’ , initiated by programme maker Gyonne Goedhoop from TENT

  • Artist’ talk at TENT, Part of the 'THUIS bij TENT' series, initiated by programme maker Gyonne Goedhoop from TENT
  • Participant of Prospects & Concepts, Art Rotterdam at the Van Nelle fabriek

2018
  • Duoshow ‘IT MIGHT BE GONE, IT MIGHT BECOME’ with Jasmijn Krol, Team Thursday HQ (Rotterdam, NL)
  • Groupshow ‘As Far As I Can Reach’, curated by Marilou Klapwijk, Quartair (The Hague, NL)
  • Solo exhibition ‘Knowing that it will change over time, Feeling that it will stay the same for now’, der Neue Galerie Landshut (Landshut, DE)
  • Solo exhibition NOW IS A DIFFERENT BACK THEN, museum SCHUNCK* (Heerlen, NL)

2017
  • Solo exhibition NOW IS A DIFFERENT BACK THEN, museum SCHUNCK* (Heerlen, NL)
  • Solo exhibition ‘I’m trying to understand the universe, so it would be nice of you to give me some space’, de Spiegelzaal, Willem Twee Kunstruimte (’s- Hertogenbosch, NL)

2015
  • Groupshow PERROQUET, Loods 12, Wetteren (BE), Group exhibition, curated by Hans Demeulenaere and Bas van den Hurk
•  Groupshow ‘KINDERGEBURTSTAG’, Paris (FR), curated by René Hausstein

2014
  • Groupshop Best of Graduation 2014, Circa...Dit (Arnhem, NL)
  • Groupshow Best of Graduation 2014, DBK (Dordrecht, NL)
  • Graduation show AKV | St. Joost

2013
  • Groupshow ‘Somewhere in Between’, Kunstpodium T (Tilburg, NL), ‘Apprentice / Master’ with Charlotte Dumas, Emily Huurdeman, Yasmin van der Rauwelaert and Charlotte van de Velde

residencies and work periods

  • Coming up! April-June 2024 NARS Foundation, Brooklyn, New York

    Events and presentations
    2019
    • Part of the peripheral program of TENT ‘At home at TENT’ and ‘TENT’ visiting’, an initiative by programme maker Gyonne Goedhoop
    2017 / 2018
    • Several guest lectures at AKV | St. Joost (Breda and ’s- Hertogenbosch, NL)
    2016
    • Presentation book ‘All of these Images Are The Outcome Of Certain Observations’, Unseen Photo Book fair, represented by PhotoQ (Amsterdam, NL)
    2015
    • Event Young Publishing Night, PrintRoom, Rotterdam (NL), presentation dummy ‘All of these images are the outcome of certain observations’ Together with Maurice van Es, Roos van den Oetelaar and Renée Verberne
    • Presentation of the book ‘All of these images are the outcome of certain observations’ by Mondriaan Fonds, ‘Tables’, during ART Rotterdam & ART Brus

    grants and nominations 

    • 2022 Jaap Harten Fonds for catalogue ‘Orchestrating Coincidence’ icw Hilde Onis
    • 2022 Stichting Stokroos for catalogue ‘Orchestrating Coincidence’ icw Hilde Onis
    • PPR support, CBK Rotterdam
    • 2021 Corona bridging grant, Mondriaan Fund
    • 2021 Makersloket grant for ‘Ornamenting the Home’ icw Katrein Breukers
    • 2021 Makersloket grant for publication work period H(a)L icw Raquel Vermunt
    • 2021 Makersloket grant for audiowork ‘de kleine waanzin’ icw Dean Bowen
    • 2020 Research and Development Grant (O&O),
      CBK Rotterdam, for more info click here
    • 2017/2018 Stipendium for Emerging Artists, Mondriaan Fund
    • 2014 Graduation grant, residency period at St. Moritz Art Academy, St. Moritz (CH)
    • 2011 Nominee BLEND TALENT AWARD


    organizational

    2013 – 2017 Core member of artists’ initiative Club Solo (Breda, NL)
    2016 - 2017 Producer Kunst&Werk AKV | St. Joost (Breda, ’s-Hertogenbosch, NL)
    2013 – 2014 Organizer of Artist-in-residence Hoogtepunt, founded by Femke Dekkers (Breda, NL)


    education

    2009 – 2014 Bachelor Fine Arts / AKV | St. Joost (Breda, NL)

    NOW IS A DIFFERENT BACK THEN
    25.11.2017 - 14.01.2018, Museum SCHUNCK*, Heerlen (NL)

    In the same way as a photograph, an exhibition can be considered as a ‘snapshot’. This is the underlying idea behind Liza Wolters’ compilation for her solo exhibition at SCHUNCK*. The images have been specially selected for this exhibition space and printed in formats and on surfaces she deems suitable for the works individually and for the exhibition as a whole. It’s the first time that so many works have been on display together and most have never before been exhibited.

    The exhibition in SCHUNCK* functions as one large, temporary installation. Everything relates to everything else, even the space which visitors occupy between the works of art forms an integral part. Much can happen there: works can move, change shape and get closer, and visitors can likewise develop a relationship with them and make connections. Sometimes, you can forget they are mere photos: the works are almost sculptures, physical in essence, and have a forceful spatial presence.

    Anyone walking around the exhibition has no option but to open up to what awaits them: the association between shapes, the movements in a video and the variation in materials used for presenting the printed images. Through the medium of her images, Liza aims to communicate with her audience, in much the same direct way perhaps, as the one in which she creates her images. She sees this as the sincerest way of establishing contact with the world, of connecting with others and her surroundings.

    Fragment out of the accompanying text for the exhibition, written by Florette Dijkstra.

    Now is a different back then is kindly supported by Fonds Kwadraat, CBK Rotterdam, Yolk and Mondriaan Fonds.

    Three works from the exhibition are part of the collection SCHUNCK*, Gemeente Heerlen.