Renie Spoelstra (1974, Drachten) lives and works in Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Renie Spoelstra does not draw landscapes in a traditional sense; she explores the tension between presence and disappearance. Working primarily in charcoal, she has spent over twenty-five years developing a practice centered on time, atmosphere, and the psychological weight of a single, suspended moment.
Her drawings originate from photographs and film footage captured during carefully prepared journeys across locations such as the Netherlands, Scandinavia, the United States, Iceland, Peru, and Canada. Rather than seeking the spectacular, Spoelstra focuses on quiet, seemingly anonymous places. By reducing detail and avoiding specific markers of location, her landscapes shift from geographical representations to mental spaces — universal, introspective, and open.
Central to her work is the search for a precise instant comparable to the dead point of a swing, where stillness and movement coexist. Translated into charcoal, these moments become charged and unstable. Through a layered process of drawing, erasing, and reworking, she builds velvety surfaces in warm blacks and grays, balancing control and unpredictability.
Themes of reflection, mist, and darkness play a significant role in her work, reinforcing a sense of elusiveness and transformation. Landscapes appear to emerge and dissolve simultaneously, creating a subtle tension that is both visual and psychological. Her imagery often evokes a cinematic atmosphere, echoing influences from filmmakers such as Hitchcock and David Lynch.
Personal experiences of loss — including the passing of her mother and sister — have deepened Spoelstra’s engagement with landscape as a space for memory and reflection. Works such as Mountains & Angels and the monumental Glacier View (2022), created after a journey to Peru, can be understood as both intimate and universal: a requiem for personal grief as well as for broader ecological change.
Spoelstra’s landscapes exist in a timeless, uninhabited space — without narrative or direction. They are not depictions of specific locations, but echoes: of what once was, what is slipping away, and what remains just beyond reach.
Renie Spoelstra studied at the Royal Academy The Hague and Post-St. Joost Breda.
Recently she’s won the prestigious Guerlain Drawing Prize 2026.
She has exhibited at institutions like the Louvre-Lens, Albertina Vienna, Musée National Luxembourg, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen Rotterdam, the Kunsthal Rotterdam, Museum Belvedere Heerenveen, Rijksmuseum Twenthe and Palais d’Iena Paris.
Her work is included in renowned collections such as the Centre Pompidou Paris, MACBA Barcelona, Collection Frac Picardie Amiens, Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, Centraal Museum Utrecht, Cobra Museum voor Moderne Kunst Amstelveen, Museum Voorlinden Wassenaar, the Guerlain Foundation Paris, De Nederlandsche Bank, Bouwfonds Collection, The National Collection of the Netherlands, The National Collection Luxembourg, Teylers Museum Haarlem, The Louis Dreyfus Family Collection NY, Superfood Collection London, De Ru Collection and many other (private) collections worldwide.
Her work is represented by Ron Mandos Gallery Amsterdam.
Multimedia links:
GalleryViewer Renie Spoelstra
GalleryViewer The Choice of… Nanne de Ru 2020
The show Nordic Noir 2020 at Ron Mandos Gallery on vimeo
Avro Kunstuur 07-09-2013 interview with art critic Hans den Hartog Jager at Rijks Museum Twenthe
The Gulf Between on Belgium TV 100% Cultuur with interview Renie Spoelstra