KEETJE MANS
Keetje Mans was born in Amsterdam in 1979 and studied at the academy of fine arts and the Jan van Eyck academy in Maastricht.
A sense of cultural 'rubbing along' runs like a thread through her paintings and drawings, represented in characteristic scenes with mystical dimensions and references to exotic folk culture, which lend distinctive symbolic overtones to the work. By using off-colours and typographical elements she try's to displace her subjects and motives out of their contexts in vaguely home-made interiors. She likes to work with symbols and subjects that have a homespun character to them to construct a more private world. It was these distinctive qualities that secured the Royal Award for Modern Painting for Mans in 2012, followed by a solo-exhibition at the Bonnefanten museum in Maastricht.