Luuk Smits

photography - installation - sculpture

The abundance of construction material in our area amazes me. As a result, I also come into contact with the design of public space a lot. I observe construction sites, materials left behind by road workers, I walk around. I want to know what something is used for and what the origin of our material environment is. There are different layers within history: social, political and environmental. I am interested in how the materials themselves can communicate these layers, and what role I play in this. I make art to explore, question and share those layers.

A material, for example wood, is a natural material. Because we build with it, the organic form is converted to an industrial form in a specific size. Efficiency and standard play a role in this. I find this moment of transformation from organic material to industrial size interesting. In my work I adopt this principle of transformation, but in a non-standardized way.

  • Portfolio
  • Activities
  • Awarded
  • Contact

    • Summer of Art

    Exhibition / presentation

    • 31-07-2023 t/m 01-09-2023
    • In collaboration with: Brutus
    • Location:, Rotterdam

    EKWC

    Residencies / exchange

    • 25-10-2017 t/m 26-01-2018
    • In collaboration with: EKWC, CBK Rotterdam
    • Location: , Oisterwijk
    • I started to play with the rather delicate and breakable material which is ceramics to undermine the assumed solidity and reliability of the cables and pipes as a central component of our urban infrastructures. By installing these breakable objects on fragile pedestals or hanging them in space I wished to underscore their autonomous and clumsy appearance as well as their bold colors when not in function.
    • https://www.luuksmits.nl/works/testslot

    Spatial Interventions Sugar Union Groningen

    Exhibition / presentation

    • 16-06-2021 t/m 16-08-2023
    • In collaboration with: SIGN Groningen
    • Location: Groningen, Groningen
    • Luuk Smits makes a seven-metre-high mobile tower of giant Styrofoam sugar cubes and drives it through the post-industrial nature reserve, which unfortunately will soon have to make way for a new housing estate. His work 'Drive-by' is, as it were, a pre-announcement of the intrusion of building materials that will soon take over nature. A film of this absurd action can be seen, as well as the tower itself.
    • https://www.luuksmits.nl/works/drive-by

    OPEN HAUS ZK/U: OPEN STUDIOS, PERFORMANCES, VIDEOS, INSTALLATIONS AND RESIDENT TALKS

    Exhibition / presentation

    • 19-05-2022 t/m 19-01-2020
    • Location: , Berlin
    • A multitude of spaces turned into places by its people - through actions, encounters and memories. A place of negotiations and in-betweens: From city spaces and public places, over playgrounds and construction sites, to neighborhoods and apartment blocks. Shaped by the diverse interests of the residents who will be presenting their work-in-progress, the practices vary from performance, intervention, and sound installation to multimedia.
    • https://www.zku-berlin.org/timeline/openhaus-may-2022/

    Concentrated Daydreaming

    Exhibition / presentation

    • 04-01-2020 t/m 12-01-2020
    • Location: The Wild Known, Rotterdam
    • Over a period of four months, I undertook a self-initiated artistic research project focused on 'concentrated daydreaming'. Daydreaming for me is understood as taming the brain to be able to wonder again, the concentration lies in the ambiguity that it was meant to be a project. I explored daydreaming through the physical act of walking. In this case, navigating the urban fabric of Rotterdam.
    • https://www.luuksmits.nl/works/concentrated-daydreaming

    Residency Rucka Latvia

    Residencies / exchange

    • 01-05-2018 t/m 31-05-2018
    • Location: Cesis, Cesis
    • In Rucka, a small town of about 18.000 inhabitants, there is an unusual relationship between machine and nature. The smell of oil hangs in the air mixed with the smells of flora and fauna surrounding overgrown tracks. The silence of the rural landscape loudens and intensifies the smallest of details that usually go by unnoticed. Attuning to the sound of the train within this landscape causes a divergent experience of time passing and one of enstranged orientation.
    • https://www.luuksmits.nl/works/subsonic-train

    Fellow at ZK/U Berlin

    Residencies / exchange

    • 01-03-2023 t/m 31-05-2023
    • Location: , Berlin
    • During a residency at ZK/U Berlin (Centre for Arts and Urbanistics) two new works were developed that respond to the site of ZKU in its state of transformation. During his working period, Smits explored the (de)construction of the building, with an interest in tracing the journeys of the materials used. His research has taken him to discover origins ranging from Berlin and China to Ukraine. As well as to recognize the different techniques and materials used over time, from the building's advent
    • https://www.zku-berlin.org/fellows/628/

    Acknowledgments

      Scholarship

    • Work contribution Young Talent, Mondriaan fund

    • 2015
      Scholarship

    • Development and research grant, CBK Rotterdam for sundaymorning@EKWC, Oisterwijk

    • 2017
      Scholarship

    • Project Funding, Mondriaan Fund for Rucka Residency

    • 2018
      Scholarship

    • Project Funding, Mondriaan Fund for ZK/U Berlin Residency

    • 2021
      Pricing

    • Metro Imaging Award, Portfolio Review, Düsseldorf Photo weekend 


    • 2016
      Collection

    • Ministry of Infrastructure

    • 2017, The Hague
      Collection

    • Collection Reyn van de Lugt

    • 2016, Rotterdam
      Collection

    • Ministry of Education, Culture and Science

    • 2018, The Hague
      Publication

    • Rural, Romantic Observations

    • 2013
    • Article
    • NRC Handelsblad - Dirk Limburg
      Publication

    • Dishes Art

    • 2014
    • Article/Interview
    • Volkskrant - Gidi Heesakkers
      Publication

    • (in)visible hand

    • 2021
    • Article
    • Volkskrant - Mark Moorman