Fransje Killaars

Colour is the all-encompassing subject in the work of Fransje Killaars (1959). In the 1980s, 1990s, she used fluorescent colours in her paintings that to the eye left an afterimage on the white wall. Colour thus stepped outside the frame of the painting into space. Triggered by this phenomenon, she started exploring how she could leave the flat surface of the canvas and extend her work into another medium. In India, she discovered the possibilities of textiles at a traditional weaving mill. From then on, Fransje Killaars started making installations with textiles, giving colour a haven where art touches upon design, architecture and fashion.

From 1984, she was also assistant to Sol LeWitt and worked with MVRDV architects on a proposal for the UN building in New York. In 2003, a textile artwork by Killaars was realised in the Herenkamer of the Catshuis, residency of the Dutch prime minister. Issey Miyake discovered her art in 2004 and invited her for a collaboration and to exhibit her installations.

Textiles have protective and comfortable qualities, making the viewer feel enveloped and protected in the work thus immersing him/her in the effect of colour. Fransje Killaars’ installations have a strong autonomous quality but also address social and political themes that are touched upon without making them explicit

The work Toko (2000-2023), which was show in the exhibition Between Borders at Museum Arnhem NL in 2023, refers to the fate of refugees. The political crisis in 2000 in Kosovo causing a large number of displaced people inspired Fransje Killaars to make the work. It consists of a huge tarpaulin with four colour strips in yellow and green hanging from wall to wall. On it lies her so-called alphabet, consisting of materials such as bags filled with wool, hand-woven carpets and fabrics.

1959 born in Maastricht, NL

education

1979 – 1984 Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam, NL
lives and works in Amsterdam and Almere

Selected solo exhibitions

2024 Een staat tot Een – Een staat tot Allen, Museum de Kantfabriek and St. Lambertus Church, Horst
2023 THE INTUITION, Galerie Maurits van de Laar, Den Haag, NL
Installation Life and Death, Piet Killaars and Fransje Killaars, Museum Beelden aan Zee , Scheveningen NL
2022 Installation Death and Someone’s Life, Gorcums Museum, Gorinchem NL
Installation Daily Life, Alex 51 Gallery, Maastricht NL
2021 Installation Figures Colours First no 2, Centraal Station Utrecht, Stichting Polderlicht, Utrecht NL
2016 Textile Colour Fields, GEM, The Hague, NL
2013 Color at the Center, Ewing Gallery of Art & Architecture, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA
Color at the Center, Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston, Maine, USA

Selected group exhibitions 

2024 The Concentric Influences of Soll Lewitt, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne AUS
2023 Between Borders, Museum Arnhem, Arnhem NL
Image of Power, Textiel Biennale, Museum Rijswijk, Rijwijk NL
2022 Marres, Limburg Biennale, Maastricht NL
Between Nowhere and Elswhere, Kunstenaarsboeken Museum Weserburg, Bremen DE
2021 SEPTEMBERGRAS , Beverwijk, Landgoed Akerendam Stichting Kunst & Cultuur Beverwijk
2020/2021 COLORUP, LUMC, Leiden, curator Marianne Roodenburg
2020 SOFTART loods 6, Amsterdam CBK21
2019 SOTT, Museum Jan Cunen , Oss
We Wonder Where The White Went, Arti & Amicitae, Amsterdam curator Marianne Roodenburg
2018 Kleur & abstractie, Generaties in Dialoog, Textiel museum, Tilburg
Rozentuin, Installatie Figures and Panels, Kunst Rai , Amsterdam

curating, teaching

2022-2023 Guest curator Piet Killaars 100 jaar Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht
2013-2014 Guest teacher HKU, School of the Arts, Utrecht, NL
2009-2012 Guest teacher Design Academy, Eindhoven, NL
2008 Teacher Textile and Fashion department KABK/Royal Art Academy, Den Haag, NL
2007 Guest teacher Sandberg Institute, Amsterdam, NL
2006 Member advice commission Textile and Fashion department, KABK/Royal Art Academy, Den Haag, NL
Examinator and guest teacher Sint-Lucas Art Academy, Gent, BE
Guest teacher Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam, NL
2001 Examinator Art Academy AKV/St. Joost, ‘s- Hertogenbosch, NL
1997-1998 Teacher post graduate painting classes, Minerva Academy, Groningen, NL
1984-1994 assistant Sol LeWitt

awards

1997 The Best Book Designs, Stichting de Best Verzorgde Boeken, Amsterdam, NL
1996 The Best Book Designs, Stichting de Best Verzorgde Boeken, Amsterdam, NL
1995 The Best Book Designs, Stichting de Best Verzorgde Boeken, Amsterdam, NL
1994 Touche Prijs, Kunststichting Touche, NL

collections 

Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Kunstmuseum, Den Haag, NL; Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, NL; Centraal Museum, Utrecht

Issey Myake , Tokyo JP; Stadsgalerij, Heerlen, NL; Museum Bommel-Van Dam, Venlo, NL; Ziekenhuiscollectie, MUMC,Maastricht, NL

Museum voor moderne kunst Arnhem, NL; De Vleeshal, Middelburg, NL; Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, Schiedam, NL

DSM, Heerlen, NL; UMC, Utrecht, NL; Rabobank Nederland, NL; Akzo Nobel Nederland, NL; Mondriaan Fonds, Amsterdam, NL

Bates College museum of Art, Lewiston, Maine, (USA); Dortmunder U, Museum Ostwall, Dortmund, DE;  ABN AMRO Bank,  Amsterdam,