1965, The Hague, The Netherlands
Lives in Amsterdam

Works in China, Czech Republic and West-coast of Africa

What inspires Hans van Bentem can be almost anything. A pop song, local skills in Jingdezhen or a character of the Muppet show, most likely Beaker, the long-suffering assistant who was named after a piece of laboratory tool.

Hans van Bentem (1965, The Hague, The Netherlands) graduated in 1988 from the Royal Academy of Fine Art (KABK) in The Hague. Since 1990 he has been producing large-scale sculptures. In 1990, 1992 and 1994 he received national grants (Fonds voor de Beeldende Kunsten (BKVB)).

Hans van Bentem is stimulated, once also by the punk movement, to tease our bourgeois habit to link art to a logical narrative. [As a boy the Dutch artist constructed do-it-yourself kits to take up the world.] Rough, fragile and smooth are his 2 meters high dildos made from Venetian glass in very soft light pink or light blue colors.

Site specific and royal
Hans van Bentem is not only playing with clichés but can be quite intelligent in displaying a strong sensitivity to the intended sites for his work. In his major exhibition, at the Gemeente Museum Den Haag (The Municipal Museum of The Hague), Hans van Bentem filled up six style rooms, ranging from an original Louis XV style chamber to a lacquer interior of a Japanese Room, this latter space used as a setting for an installation of his porcelain sculptures of various body parts on a ceramic bed of lotus flowers, stones and lumps of rock. 


His 14 contemporary crystal sculptures that are in the collection and permanently on view in the Escher Museum in The Hague (a shark, a spider and a sea horse and other works) bear great testimony to their site-specific character. In this former Winterpalace of Queen mother Emma that was officially used by the Royal family until the 1990’s, the crystal sculptures incorporate allusions both to the history of the building and to the gifted artist M.C. Escher.


Grants
1990 - Start-stipendium, Fonds voor de Beeldende Kunsten (BKVB), Amsterdam
1992 - Fonds voor de Beeldende Kunsten (BKVB), Amsterdam
1994 - Basisbeurs Fonds voor de Beeldende Kunsten (BKVB), Amsterdam

2013
'Keep on Dreaming', Fraeylemaborg, Slochteren, The Netherlands (solo)

2012
'Keep on Dreaming', Haagsch Gemeente Museum, The Hague (solo), The Netherlands

2011
'Ctrl-Z: Rapid Prototyping', De Vishal, Haarlem, The Netherlands

2010
'Popjugend', Galerie Majke Hüsstege, Den Bosch, The Netherlands
'Ontmoeting #5', De KetelFactory, Schiedam, The Netherlands
'6 + 6: Kunstenaars aan zet', MalieBeeld, The Hague, The Netherlands

2009
'GLAS', Designhuis, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Alternative Gallery, Miami, USA
C-Space, Beijing, China
Ministry of OCW, The Haque, The Netherlands
'3D portretten', Stedelijk Museum Kampen, Kampen, The Netherlands

2008
FOUR STEP SNAKE, Two Cities Gallery, Shanghai, China
'Fashions Ghosts', Maliebeeld, The Hague, The Netherlands (solo)
'Avatar/(Be)Gegner', De Vishal, Haarlem, The Netherlands

2007
'Fragiles', Design Miami, USA
Ceramic Art Fair, Jingdezhen, China
‘Pretty Dutch’, Museum Het Princessehof, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands
'Theatre of obsessions', Ron Mandos Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
'Abklopfen & Neuputzen', Livingstone gallery, The Hague, The Netherlands

2006
Dutch Ambassade South Africa
'Boumbaclaque part II', Dakart-off, Biennale Dakar, Senegal
'Porcelain', Jingdezhen, China
'Hans van Bentem and IRIS', De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), Amsterdam, The Netherlands
'New Acquisitions', CBK Amsterdam, The Netherlands

2005
Ijs-sculpturen & performance 'Dance for Orion', Savitaipale, Finland
Sculptuur 'GUARD', Skatepark, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
'Boumbaclaque part I', EKWC, Den Bosch & Museum Het Princessehof, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands
'Hans van Bentem and IRIS', Heden Gallery, The Hague, The Netherlands
'Kind & Kunst', Museum 't Valkhof, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

2004
'Face to Face', de Roos van Tudor Gallery, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands
'Bodytalk', Museum Beelden aan Zee, The Hague/Schevingen, The Netherlands
'Follow the white Rabbit', with IRIS, Shaslick Pieces, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
'Something Rotten', Loerakker Galerie, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
'Walter Willems en Hans van Bentem', Loerakker Galerie, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

2003
Museum Het Princessehof, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands (Solo)
K-03, Lappeenranta, Finland
'Passie in beeld', (collection de Nederlandsche Bank), The Hague, The Netherlands
‘Armour’, fort Asperen, Acquoy, The Netherlands
'Kroonluchters in Paleis', Escher in het Paleis, The Hague (Solo), The Netherlands

2002
'Encounter', Loerakker Galerie, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

2001
'Artoonism', Showroom MAMA, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
'Floating Time', Den Bosch, The Netherlands
'Topografie des Gedachtnis', Bremen, Germany
'Hans van Bentem, Dolron, Kramer, Pär Strömberg, Juliette Tulkens', Loerakker Galerie, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

2000
Garth Clark Gallery, New York, USA
'Designmensch', Museum für Kunst & Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany

1999
Mosaic panels for Station North, Groningen, The Netherlands

1998
Loerakker Galerie, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (solo)
''The Nude in Clay', Perimeter Gallery Chicago, USA

1997
'Brandend Zand', Museum Beelden aan Zee, Scheveningen, The Netherlands
Werkperiode EKWC, Den Bosch, The Netherlands

1996
Court House, Breda, The Netherlands

1995
Loerakker Galerie, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (solo)

1994
'De Bron', CBK Groningen, The Netherlands

1993
STROOM, Haags Centrum Beeldende Kunst, The Hague, The Netherlands

1992
'Nederlandse Monumentale Keramiek', Castellon and Barcelona, Spain

1991
Beeldenpark 'Groei en Beweging', Wateringen, The Netherlands
Haags Centrum voor Actuele Kunst (HCAK), The Hague, The Netherlands

1990
'Monumenten & Beeldende Kunst', Zoetermeer, The Netherlands
'Monumentale Keramiek', Frans Halsmuseum, Haarlem, The Netherlands

1989
Ceramic Work Centre (KWC), Heusen (sundaymorning@ekwc), The Netherlands