couverture du livre de Maaike

En 2008 Maaike Klein écrivait le livret Ultima Thule, dans lequel elle dévoile son évolution d'artiste céramiste.




Maaike Klein (b. 1947, the Netherlands) has had her foundation in art, specializing in ceramics, in Rotterdam.

She had her own studio in Haulerwijk, Friesland, Netherlands, for 18 years.
Since 1998 she has lived and worked in Antraigues sur Volane,  Ardeche, France.


Maaike Klein has had exhibitions in the Netherlands, France, Finland, the USA, Italy and Denmark.
Installations are part of her oeuvre, using besides clay such diverse materials as stainless steel, polystyrene, grass or paper.
She has also realized sculptures for public space.


In 1987 Allaard Hidding, curator of ,Keramiekmuseum Het Princesshof' wrote:
“The main shapes of her work are always simple, constructed from triangles and squares, and with a feeling of monumentality.
The poetry is on the surface, but why make geometric abstract work in such a plastic material as clay, as it is a contradiction that always provokes tension”.


It is this contradiction, inherent in clay, that will become the theme of her work: the geometric order versus the chaotic plasticity of clay.


There is also a recurring interaction between her work and landscape: 
the man-made Frisian landscape with its dykes, canals and rectangular lots inspired wall-pieces and objects where ruler-straight lines governed the image.
In Iceland she discovered the untamed structures of basalt formations. The theme is now realized in sculpted containers of Raku fired clay.


From 2014 onward she has been working with white- and coloried porcelain clay and colour: an original composition of colored clay on a white background changes by cutting and stretching into a new composition, showing the plasticity of the material: playful natural movements, results from choice and chance.