Biography
Ansuya Blom (Netherlands 1956) has been working as an artist since 1978.
Her drawings and films focus on the relation and friction between the marginalised
individual and the external world. As a result of this friction,
misunderstandings, misconceptions and confusions arise.
‘The first person singular’ is used as a way of looking at this dichotomy. Her interest lies in moments that arise as a result of a disjointed experience of the world. She aims to ‘catch’ these moments, to think them through and to lay bare the strategies that the marginalised individual adopts in order to deal with these disconnections.
Text and words often play a role in Ansuya Blom’s work. The biographies of various individuals inform many of her drawings and films. In her films the world is seen through the protagonist’s eyes and heard through their inner voice. The potential of an implied narrative, of a development in time, plays an important part in her films. What fascinates her is both meaning which comes from syntax as well as meaning which has been lost or altered, arising from a disjointed sentence structure.
Her drawings are based on texts, such as the letters of Ellen West, Native American Poetry and the writings of Søren Kierkegaard.
Solo exhibitions of Ansuya Blom’s work have been held at Camden Arts Centre in London; The Douglas Hyde Gallery in Dublin and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Her work was part of the Aperto 90 La Biennale di Venezia. Her films have been screened at The International Film Festival Rotterdam, Rencontres Internationales Paris-Berlin, IDFA and The Museum of Modern Art in New York. Her work is part of various private and public collections such as the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen Rotterdam, Tate Modern London.
Ansuya Blom is a regular advisor at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam and has been a guest advisor at various art institutions, amongst others the Slade School of Fine Art in London; ACC in South Korea; the Nola Hatterman Institute Surinam and Gudskul, Indonesia. She is also an associate member of the Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research in London.
In 2020 she was awarded the Dr. A.H. Heineken Price for Art.
Go to press release Dr. A.H. Heineken Prize for Art ︎︎︎
‘The first person singular’ is used as a way of looking at this dichotomy. Her interest lies in moments that arise as a result of a disjointed experience of the world. She aims to ‘catch’ these moments, to think them through and to lay bare the strategies that the marginalised individual adopts in order to deal with these disconnections.
Text and words often play a role in Ansuya Blom’s work. The biographies of various individuals inform many of her drawings and films. In her films the world is seen through the protagonist’s eyes and heard through their inner voice. The potential of an implied narrative, of a development in time, plays an important part in her films. What fascinates her is both meaning which comes from syntax as well as meaning which has been lost or altered, arising from a disjointed sentence structure.
Her drawings are based on texts, such as the letters of Ellen West, Native American Poetry and the writings of Søren Kierkegaard.
Solo exhibitions of Ansuya Blom’s work have been held at Camden Arts Centre in London; The Douglas Hyde Gallery in Dublin and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Her work was part of the Aperto 90 La Biennale di Venezia. Her films have been screened at The International Film Festival Rotterdam, Rencontres Internationales Paris-Berlin, IDFA and The Museum of Modern Art in New York. Her work is part of various private and public collections such as the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen Rotterdam, Tate Modern London.
Ansuya Blom is a regular advisor at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam and has been a guest advisor at various art institutions, amongst others the Slade School of Fine Art in London; ACC in South Korea; the Nola Hatterman Institute Surinam and Gudskul, Indonesia. She is also an associate member of the Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research in London.
In 2020 she was awarded the Dr. A.H. Heineken Price for Art.
Go to press release Dr. A.H. Heineken Prize for Art ︎︎︎