Noortje Zijlstra

Artist Statement

Noortje Zijlstra: “With my work I want to ask the viewer questions but also I want to make him laugh and amaze him. I use subjects from daily life that fascinate me. That can be everything; beards, food, the way we treat animals but also a broken heart. To show the things we all know in a playful way is what interests me. My work characterizes itself by a clear image in which you can find humour but also seriousness. I use different kinds of material; a work can be an object, photo or installation. However, my specialty is skinning dead animals (taxidermy) so this appears a lot in my work.”

Bio

Noortje Zijlstra (1986, Huizen, Netherlands) studied Fashion Design at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam. After graduating with her "meisjes met baarden" (girls with beards) project she received a lot of attention from magazines, newspapers and blogs. She worked in fashion for two more years. In 2013 she chose a totally different approach and started to make objects, mostly with taxidermy as her medium. In 2014 she had her first solo exhibition, since then she is represented by "A Gallery Named Sue" in The Hague.