working on it...
design consultant
design expert
/ about Niek Schoenmakers is a freelance editor, curator and designer in the field of architecture, art and contemporary and classic design. He studied Architecture at the University of Delft and Parsons, The new School, New York. He started collecting design and art at a young age, resulting in interior commissions for private and commercial clients. Along side his work as an architect and material consult, he successfully curated exhibitions for cultural institutions and galleries.
Niek is a collector. He collects the narratives from the objects surrounding him. By doing so, his projects explore and promote the cultural field. Instead of keeping these stories for his personal pleasure, Niek share these stories. Although he works as an interior designer and curator, he thinks of himself foremost as a communicator. He does not start from an academic point of view; instead, his interest is in finding and creating a narrative in objects, art and space. Working with or for creators, Schoenmakers’s physical or written narratives, explore material, personal origins, history and cultural context.
Niek has a broad network in the international design & art world, spots young talents, advises and helps young designers and organisations with content and exhibitions. More recently he started working as freelance content creator for interior & design organizations like Dutch Design Foundation and magazines like WOTH Magazine, Residence Magazine and Collect, exploring and documenting the contemporary designworld.
/ Collaborations Baars & Bloemhoff, Amsterdam | Central Government Real Estate Agency, The Hague | Collect Kunstmagazine | De Architect, The Hague | Domaine de Boisbuchet, Lessac | Dutch Design Organisation | Gallery OODE, Amsterdam | Gagosian Gallery, New York | Kwarts & Co, Gulpen | Municipality of Roermond | Niels Broszat, artist | Organisation in Design | Residence magazine | Restaurant SJMAAK, Sittard | Rutger de Regt, designer | Sustainer Homes, Utrecht | Studio Dirk van der Kooij, designer | Studio Mae Engelgeer, designer | vintageplus | WOTH magazine | Zetel Foundation, Amsterdam
/ Exhibitions Design is my RELIGION is my design (2018) | NOX (2016) | BERLAGE, godfather of design (2016) | Hoe zit dat? (2011)
/ Fairs Design Icons, Amsterdam | Design Market, Brussels | Dubieus design, Antwerp | Dutch Design week, Eindhoven | La biennale di Venezia, Venice | Salone del Mobile, Milan
/ Education Faculty of Architecture, Technical University of Delft | Parsons School for constructed environments, New York
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DESIGN IS MY RELIGION
Concept:
Invited by Niels Broszat, an artist in the role of curator, Niek Schoenmakers, a curator in the role of an artist, created two installations. These installations are a visual conversation with the paintings by Har van der Put. Van der Put paints gloomy interior spaces, not based on a actual environment but purely made with his own fantasy. They are sketches and impressions of space, rather then actual places. The installations by Niek try to do the reverse: taking actual objects and by intervening with their chapes, reduce them to sketches.
For the realisation of these two installations, Niek used his personal collection of chairs as a startingpoint. The objects with which Niek surrounds himself are the strongest expression of his view to world, appreciation spatial concepts, history and use of material. The chair collection is a big part of that, so it was a natural step to use this as his medium for the installations. The chairs range from the first designicoon he bought, only 17 year old, to the latest creating by a young designers.
The first installation investigates the sculptural quality of some of the most famous icons in Western design history: the Panton chair (Verner Panton), the Butterfly chair (Arne Jacobsen), the Tulip Chair (Eero Saarinen) and the Plastic Chair (Charles & Ray Eames). By covering them with a thin sheet of plastic, used to protect objects when painting, their shapes are visible but their presence is reduced to a glimpse. It’s an invitation for the view to re-evalute the object and the space it occupies.
The second installation is a composition of 9 chairs, places in rows of 3. Every row has a different story to tell: material, shape and construction. By intervening with these chairs by covering pieces with transparant material, the viewer is challenged to take a closer look. Why are these chairs related and what is the story they tell?
PICTURA DORDRECHTINTERVIEW: SCHELTENS&ABBENES PUBLISHED: WOTH 2017
Niek Schoenmakers acts a connector in the field of art and design. Trained as an architect he is used to thinking on a larger spatial scale, connecting concept to functionality. As a collector he has a trained eye for quality and rarity. He works closely together with specialists in other fields, like architect, art historians or dealers. Niek has successfully initiatief projects in the field of art and design, including exhibitions and publications.
