Gwen Stok

comics/cartoons - figurative - human

She is always searching for new ways to tell a story through images. Her most recent work displays a gravitation towards philosophical observations of the human identity with a clear fascination for when the psyche fails us as a single being or as a group. Not only is she fascinated with the current state of affairs but she also explores how these ideas and observations were explained in older times. This gives a classic and timeless feel to her paintings and drawings. Although confronting at times, her work not only functions as a mirror for modern society but also displays a lot about the mind of the author herself. She translates this into her paintings, drawings and comics.


In every fiber

Project

  • 17-01-2022
  • Location: Rotterdam,
  • Every fiber takes the viewer into a modern interpretation of Javanese visual language, with a collage of texts and images that unearth stories from the colonial legacy. The approach is not only in-depth in terms of content, but also innovative in approach, because image maker Gwen Stok and writer Christian Jongeneel interact to create material that turns the story into a poetic graphic novel. The project is still in development, expected publication date at the end of 2024.

Memoir of a Jellyfish

Project

  • 06-04-2020 t/m 31-10-2021
  • Location:, Rotterdam
  • Memoir of a Jellyfish is a transmedia story about time and gravity, a visual search through fragments of memories. A research and development project to break through linearity in a story by using decomposed book in combination with digital Augemented Reality.
  • https://www.gwenst.com/memoirofajellyfish/

City artist 2021

Task

  • 15-12-2020 t/m 23-10-2021
  • In collaboration with: CBK and City Archives
  • Location: Rotterdam, Rotterdam
  • GWEN STOK Gwen Stok (1983) asks several Rotterdammers to send pictures of the view from their windows. She combines these photos with impressions she gains herself during her walks and with what she hears in the news every day. This has been elaborated in a cartoon of separate drawings and a comic strip-like leporello, a zigzag folded drawing. The leporello symbolizes the grind of the hard lockdown and the days that merge into each other.
  • https://www.cbkrotterdam.nl/nieuws/rotterdamse-stadstekenaars-2021/

Acknowledgments

    Scholarship
  • CBK R&D

  • 2020
    Scholarship
  • Stimulation fund

  • 2017
    Scholarship
  • Stimulation fund

  • 2016
    Scholarship
  • The Dutch Foundation for Literature

  • 2014
    Scholarship
  • Incentive Fund - Experiment grant scheme

  • 2022
    Scholarship
    Pricing
  • Bologna Ragazzi Digital Award - Special mention

  • 2017
    Pricing
  • Golden Guppy

  • 2017
    Pricing
  • Lovies Award (Bronze & People's Choice)

  • 2017
    Pricing
    Publication
  • The cure of the cricket

  • 2019
  • graphic novel
  • Querido - Show Tellegen
    Publication
  • -
    Publication
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