Alexandra Engelfriet

Alexandra Engelfriet is a sculptor and performance artist from the Netherlands, who has her studio in France. She is specialized in large scale, often site-specific, installations, performances and monumental sculptures. Her projects, solo exhibitions, and performances are featured internationally in museums, galleries, sculpture parks and private collections. Her earth art and earthworks explore the essence and physical of being in our place in the world. Her performances and sculptures have inspired authors and filmmakers. The physical and intangible beauty of her dance with earth and clay is primal, rough yet delicate and fluid. Both she and the audience are entranced. It is intimate, transforming of space and earth. Engelfriet seems to be channelling her art through her movement and a metaphor of existence emerges with rhythmic touch and manipulation. Engelfriet’s performances are immersive and at times overwhelming.

Projects and solo-exhibitions include Intertwining, at the Senter for keramisk kunst, Norway, Immerse Impress Imprint, at Viervaart, the Netherlands, Performance in Tbilisi, Contemporary Art Gallery of the Georgian National Museum, Georgia, Skinned at Museum Jorn, Denmark, Mixed Blood, at STARworks, US, Under Ground – 60 tons of clay, a digger, a body, in Park De Oude Warande, the Netherlands, Glassporen – Molten glass meets raw clay, at The National Glass Centre, England, Tranchée, at Le Vent des Forêts, France, Marl Hole, at the British Ceramic Biennial, among others. She has participated in group exhibitions in many countries in Europe and Scandinavia, Australia, South-Korea, China and the United States. Awards and residencies include grants from the Mondriaan Fund, the Stokroos Foundation, the Wim de Haan Foundation, the Lighton International Artists Exchange Program, the Tijlfonds – Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Bronze Prize at the Gyeonggi International Ceramic Biennale 2015, South Korea and the Van Achterbergh Prize in 2022. She received her education at the Rietveld academy of arts in the Netherlands and the European Ceramic Work Centre.

In September 2022, she has been awarded the Van Achterbergh Prize 2022 for making a special contribution to the development of ceramic art in the Netherlands.

Visit Alexandra Engelfriet’s website, web archive, and Instagram page.