Suzan DRUMMEN

Suzan Drummen (1963) grew up in a devout Catholic family. Her father was also a visual artist who produced many religious images for churches. There are always beautiful stained glass windows with bright colors in the church, which left a deep impression on the young Drummen and even inspired her later artistic creation.

Although Drummen never considered her works to be religious art, they do have a deeper spiritual meaning beyond their beauty. Since ancient times, many cultures have invariably made patterns and organized colors in various ways. Just like a child arranging a team of colored pencils in the order of the rainbow, Drummen sometimes consciously makes something that makes no sense, only to later discover that it actually connects with the greatest thing of all - even though she sometimes couldn't understand it herself, she became increasingly convinced that there was a deeper meaning - life itself.

Susan Drummen creates large-scale installations with shiny materials. They are carefully placed on the floor with precision. After an exhibition, the installation is usually dismantled and a completely new work constructed elsewhere, so that all that remains are the documents. Therefore, she always takes a lot of photos, which are very photogenic. However, Drummen was sometimes frustrated that the photographs never fully captured the work's true appearance. These installations are dazzling, and photographs can only show one dimension. To enhance the photos, she digitally manipulated some of them, placing part of the photo eight times in a circle in a kaleidoscopic manner, then adding stained glass and lenses to the kaleidoscopic images for an added touch. The glass and lenses interact with the light, shimmering as the viewing angle changes, sparkling like the original installation, beautiful even in the dark, and the gleaming stones appearing brilliant as the morning light turns brighter.

Drummen has a diverse art education background and studied at well-known universities such as Rijksacademie van Beeldende kunsten and Kunstacademie Maastricht in Amsterdam. Her works have been exhibited in important exhibitions around the world, including the Rotterdam Art Fair, Chengdu Biennale, Japan Mori Art Museum, etc. She has also participated in many public art commissions and designed commemorative coins, medals, museum merchandise, and more. In addition to her creative work, Drummen is a passionate educator and promoter of the arts and has served as a lecturer at several art colleges and institutions. She is actively involved in various artistic activities and community work, and has served as a member of several art committees, including the Royal Art Award and BKVB. Her work is in the collections of many important institutions, including the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam, the Bonnyfontein Museum in Maastricht, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Central Museum in Utrecht, Europe The Brussels Office of the Parliament and more other institutions.