Esmée

Bruins

Esmée Bruins


Artist Statement
My practice unfolds as an inventory—an ongoing, shifting archive that mirrors the contents of a home. This inventory does not simply catalogue objects or materials; it holds memory, absence, and the echoes of inherited silence. Emerging from a history of displacement and war, the work navigates the intersection between past, present, and future, often through what is unsaid or unseen.
Materials and media are not bound by their traditional roles. A photograph becomes a painting, and an installation becomes a stack. By destabilising form and genre, I resist fixed readings and question the constructs of authenticity, identity, and authorship. The instability between categories is intentional—it is a method that mirrors the instability of belonging and the layered experience of exile.
Central to the work is a visual and conceptual play between presence and absence, informed by the language of photography but extending beyond it. Containment, isolation, and rhythm emerge as recurring motifs, offering a quiet logic of absence that underpins the practice. Through this, I aim to open a critical dialogue around visibility, memory, and the spaces in between.




Information

Education
MA Fine Art - Piet Zwart Institute / 2023-2025

Bachelor of design with honours (Photography) - University of the Arts Utrecht / 2017-2021

Media Foundation + University of the Arts Utrecht / 2016-2017

Exhibitions
Piet Zwart Institute MFA Graduation Exhibition - Tent, Rotterdam / upcoming
Crocodile leather shoes - The Crooked Studio, Rotterdam / upcoming
Appreciation Exhibition - Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam / 2025
This and That (Collaborative workshop with Angelina Nonaj) - My Friend Ddrew, Crèche, Amsterdam / 2024
Heating systems - Tale of a Tub, Rotterdam / 2024
Op de manier waarop - De Bouwput, Amsterdam / 2024
Unseen - Westergas, Amsterdam / 2024
Kloof United - Kunsthal Kloof, Utrecht / 2024
Notes on image-making - Galerie Pouloeuff, Naarden / 2024 
   /duo-show with Noah van de Wetering
Index - Kunsthal Kloof, Utrecht / 2023
Springboard Art Fair - Werkspoorkathedraal, Utrecht / 2023
Two windows opening inwards (solo) - Projectspace Lokaal, Utrecht / 2023
Nothing seemed out of place - Kunsthal Kloof, Utrecht / 2022
This Art Fair - De Komhouthal, Amsterdam / 2022
Binnenstebuiten - De Nieuwkomers, Chaam / 2022
Unseen Bookfair, Amsterdam / 2022
Re: Re: Re: - Academie Galerie, Utrecht / 2021
Keep an eye stipend - Fotodok, Utrecht / 2021
Exposure - Fotodok, Utrecht / 2021
Unseen Bookfair, Amsterdam / 2021
Beeldbrug - Faam, Utrecht / 2020
In between us - Academie Galerie, Utrecht / 2019
Echt_def_2 - Academie Galerie, Utrecht / 2019

Experience & Nominations
Lecturer Media Foundation - University of the Arts Utrecht / 2021-2023
Assistant Sara Bjarland Deposits, Galleria Sculptor / 2021-2022
Internship Thomas Kuijpers / 2020
Internship Sara Bjarland / 2020

Keep an eye stipend, shortlisted / 2021
Blurring the lines, nominee / 2021

Publications
Mapping artifacts: unidentified evidence, self-published, edition of 50 / 2021

Commissions
Repeatedly elongating the breath of a memory, commissioned by Sound and Vision Institute, edition of 40 / 2023



Download resume here