Born in Haarlem in 1986, Roosje van Donselaar is a Dutch visual artist working across sculpture and installation. Her practice develops through two parallel forms of investigation: direct experimentation with materials and research into the stories through which people have created meaning across time and cultures. She is drawn to unfamiliar techniques because they interrupt routine. By beginning without complete technical knowledge, Van Donselaar allows the material's possibilities and limitations to become part of the work's direction.
Her process is intuitive and tactile. Clay, gold and other materials are handled, tested and transformed until a form begins to assert itself. Van Donselaar does not treat material as a neutral carrier for an idea. Its origin, behaviour and cultural associations actively shape the work. Clay connects the sculptures to earth, residue and the long history of making by hand. Gold carries a different charge: precious, symbolic and cosmological. Formed in dying stars before becoming part of the earth, it introduces a scale that extends beyond human history.
Alongside making, Roosje van Donselaar researches myths, legends, rituals, science, lost civilisations and forgotten practices. She is interested in what different societies have elevated, feared, worshipped or dismissed. This research does not lead to a single explanation of the sculptures. Instead, fragments of knowledge and fiction are combined into objects that remain open to interpretation. The works play with meaning rather than fixing it.
This tension is visible in series that evoke faces, spirits, animals or archaeological finds without becoming literal representations. Familiar features can feel comic, sacred or strange. Gold leaf may heighten a surface while also drawing attention to cracks and irregularity. The sculptures hold accumulated references, but their presence remains immediate and physical.
Van Donselaar's practice celebrates the inventiveness of human storytelling and the shared material origins beneath cultural difference. Her work has been presented in Dutch galleries and exhibitions, including with NewHouse Gallery. NewHouse Gallery presents selected works by Roosje van Donselaar in Amsterdam. Browse available works by Roosje van Donselaar and explore her exhibition history.