ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: laurahogeweg
There is a conceptual component to my work, but mostly it just…exists.
I met the artist, laurahogeweg, during my masters at the University of Amsterdam. Traveling from place to place as a child in the Netherlands has informed her curiosity and expression as an artist now living in Amsterdam. We recently had a chance to catch up over a coffee at Farine Bakery in Bos en Lommer, and talk about her process, the concept of ‘home’, and what it means to live a creative life.
You can see laurahogeweg’s latest work-in-progress at the Museum Villa Mondrian in Winterswijk until May 3rd, 2026.
Mark: How about we start at the beginning. Where are you from in the Netherlands?
laurahogeweg: I’m actually kind of from everywhere in the Netherlands. By the age of five I moved a lot all over; cities and villages from the West to the North and then studying in the South. It’s good that you asked, because it has really informed my work as an artist. You tend to look at space differently when you’re constantly moving, never really finding something that feels like home.
M: How did that effect you, growing up?
l: I became fascinated by keeping the same routes I was taking. For example, biking to school, or to a friend’s house. I was constantly busy thinking about these routes. It sort of became a way to understand environment and create a safe space. It didn’t feel particularly like a hard way to grow up, but when I went to the art academy it became a huge deal in my life to experience life that was a change from constantly moving and making new friends. Even though the Netherlands is such a small country, it has such a variety of cultures. Everywhere I lived people asked me where my accent is from because it’s hard to place what region or province I’m from!
M: Does that make you feel like a bit of an outsider in your own country?
l: In many ways, yes. I think that experience made me quite observant and analytical. My art is very much centred around the idea of spaces. They’re often huge installations, site-specific, because then I can really point out something about the space which I can make mine, if that makes sense. When you leave so many different places growing up, it made me very aware of environments and architecture. Ultimately, my graduating piece for the art academy was very much informed by the history of the building of the art academy, for example.
M: Tell me a bit more about the art academy. Did you always want to be an artist?
l: I was already doing a lot of art projects in elementary school, but I didn’t want to become an artist at all. As a child, I felt a lot of freedom making little dances and theatre plays. I had this huge book which became a sort of project where I was just sticking everything in it. My classmates back then probably thought I was a bit off, but they never bullied me. It was only when I became a teenager that I rejected that creative part of me.
M: Why, what happened?
l: I felt like I didn’t want to be an artist because it’s not so easy in this society and I just wanted to blend in. For a time, I was focusing on this preparatory dance academy. I thought, if I became a dancer that would be so much easier because people, in general, understand the idea of wanting to move your body and it felt less vulnerable at the time, but in the end, became a really vulnerable experience! So, after high school I thought, okay, I’m just going to travel the world, be like a homeless person going to all these countries and working in a bar or something. For a while I was in Madrid as an au pair, which helped me explore some of my Spanish roots.
M: So, you were doing that for a bit and then how did you end up at the arts academy?
l: My gap year was pretty much over, and a friend of mine was telling me, ‘Just go do this.’ It was a preperatory course at AKI, the Arts Academy of Art and Design in Enschede. I really was naïve and just going with my intuition, but on the first day I was there I was like, I’m going to do Art Academy. So, after the preparatory program, I just kept going and ended up completing my bachelor’s at the Jan Van Eyck Academy in Maastricht.
M: What was it like at the Arts Academy?
l: There were not so many students, so there was a lot of space, and I took a lot of freedom there. I was like a tsunami in creating. I was writing, making installations, paintings, sculptures… I was also at one point like, I’m gonna get crazy, you know? I was drowning a bit in my own work.
In my last year, I had my own atelier in the art academy, and I decided to paint the walls purple. Then all of a sudden, I was like, okay, now I’m safe. Everything I did in the space, like sculptures, painting, video and writing felt grounded now that the walls had these colours.
M: Why purple?
l: Purple is coming back into my work. When my parents separated, my father let me paint my own room in one of the houses we moved into. I was 8 years old and my father just let me paint the walls myself. It was purple but, in the end, red as well. It didn’t look really nice, but my father was like, oh, just go on. Because he let me do that, let me be independent and paint my own walls, I think that’s when I became really aware of what colour is. It started some sort of fascination with it.
M: So, you painted the room purple. What else did you do with the space?
l: A lot! I made a maquette, which is to say a miniature model of my own atelier with the same purple walls and grey floor because the floor was grey. I put a lot of fabrics inside, I did some performative things and recorded them on video, and I also started to dive into the history of the building itself. I was evolving for the whole year, and then when it was time for the graduate exhibition. Having all this material I built up for a whole year, I was thinking really sharp and intuitively about what I wanted to have in there.
I remember there was an external person assessing our work in order to graduate and she said to my teachers, ‘She’s doing a really good job, but I think she doesn’t know herself what she’s doing.’ I remember thinking, ‘oh my god, how can you say that?!’ But, now I know she was thinking more of the future and how to present myself professionally, which I often struggled with.
M: I'm assuming that every artist has a different way that they navigate ‘regular’ life. How would you describe your day-to-day as an artist?
l: I don't know how to explain it because it changes all the time. Studying Art History at UVA, I’m interested in a lot of fields, like studying the Middle Ages, but also taking courses analyzing dance, or in philosophy. Like my studies but also within my artwork, it goes a bit everywhere, even with the kind of media I work with.
I also believe you need to have space in your daily life, like some hours, where you can just live intuitively.
M: Do you find working intuitively important?
l: Really important. Sure, sometimes there is a conceptual component to my work, but mostly it just…exists. Like, I’m just going to start making it, and maybe I don’t like it, so I take it away and put something new. So, I’m not really consciously thinking because for me, that’s just not what art is about. So, in my atelier it’s like: now I take this book, and I’m going to go through it, now I’m going to make this little thing there in the corner and it’s maybe just a small part. I think if I would film myself, you’d see me constantly walking through the room, going to different places, doing different things.
M: How did the exhibition, ‘Atelier Mondrian: Work in progress’ at the Villa Mondrian Winterswijk come about?
l: I saw that the museum had an open call for new artists and I applied. The project is a bit inspired by Mondrian himself because his ateliers were also like art installations. So, it’s like having your atelier itself be the exhibition.
I can see how some visitors might think a two-month residency might seem like I wouldn't have much freedom to do a lot, but I was like, no, I’m going to get my freedom out of this atelier no matter what, no matter if there is a visitor coming and not understanding it. I took this project to take my freedom back in creating a bit more, to really own the space. I don't know if you can see that in the work, but it doesn't matter. I find it interesting to claim space, and saying, this is mine, you know? That’s my own philosophy about it.
My work is like I work I create in which I can act it. So at times it looks like an interior, but also like a stage design. I perform in the space and document it which later becomes part of the work as a video installation. So, I’m really playing with different mediums and boundaries and making the viewer question, is it an interior stage design or is it an installation? I’m trying to blur the lines.
M: You’ve lived and studied in Amsterdam for over six years now. What kind of things to you do like to do in the city? At night, for example?
l: I’m more living for the day. If I do something in the night, it's having dinner with friends, but then at a home of a friend mostly. If I don’t feel like going out for dinner, or going to the theatre, I’m just home in my cocoon.
M: What do you do in your cocoon, other than creating? What do you do to unwind?
l: Watch documentaries, read, watch arthouse movies. Do you know the film Daisies by Věra Chytilová ? When I saw that movie for the first time, I was like… wow. That’s my comfort movie I always go back to.
M: Are there things in Amsterdam that you think people should absolutely see? Something maybe tourists might miss?
l: Well, definitely some galleries, but even when going to the Stedelijk Museum, tourists should really check out the permanent collection and not just the temporary exhibitions. There’s some really good paintings in the permanent collection and some weird videos from the 70’s that are really conceptual with a lot of humour to it.
M: In contrast to your childhood, does Amsterdam feel like home?
l: I think I will never feel ‘home’ anymore. I’m just living with this feeling of homelessness and that’s ok. I’m not sad about it. I don’t grieve for this feeling of ‘home’ because I don’t think it will come. I’m living with this idea that ‘home’ is just a part of my body. If I feel some sort of sense of being home, then it’s in my installations.
M: Do you think it’s important for people to have some kind of creativity in their life?
l: There was a time I tried to live without creating art because I just felt that the structure of society makes it really difficult to have any sort of artistic practice. For a few months I lived without doing anything creative until I realized I couldn’t push it away. For me, like eating your vegetables or brushing your teeth, art is truly a necessity.
And that’s also the reason why I’m not feeling like, oh, a lot of people need to see this, or I need to have like huge exhibitions with a huge audience. I don’t need that because it’s coming from a different necessity to create. I’m also never the person who says, ‘Oh, I’m so happy creating in my atelier.’ It’s not about being happy or sad. I’m just a human who creates. I would be okay if I didn’t need it, but now that I know I need it, I’m just embracing it. Like the feeling of homelessness, it’s just there.
Website: laurahogeweg
Instagram: [at] laurahogeweg