Thirza Schaap (*1971, NL) graduated from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague in 1995. Since then she has been working as a photographer and is now exploring new art forms through her Plastic Ocean project. She has been living and working both in Amsterdam and in Cape Town, South Africa since 2013.
After first posting her Plastic Ocean images on Instagram she was published by I-D VICE magazine in the summer of 2017, followed by Lidewij Edelkoorts’s Trend Tablet, L’Officiel, Elle, Vogue, Aperture and many others. Her collection was included in the Finders Keepers exhibition at the Het Nieuwe Instituut, a design museum in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
In May 2019 during design week in Salone, Italy she was acknowledged by Instagram as one of four artists who present themselves successfully through social media. In March 2018 she gave a lecture, workshop to go along with her exhibition at Fabrica Research Center in Venice, Italy. Plastic Ocean’s first solo exhibition opened June 2018 in Amsterdam at Christie’s in collaboration with Colette Olof’s “O,Wonder!”.
Her first exhibition of her sculptures opened March 2019 in Maastricht in The Netherlands and later that year in Cape Town in collaboration with Greenpeace Africa.
After first posting her Plastic Ocean images on Instagram she was published by I-D VICE magazine in the summer of 2017, followed by Lidewij Edelkoorts’s Trend Tablet, L’Officiel, Elle, Vogue, Aperture and many others. Her collection was included in the Finders Keepers exhibition at the Het Nieuwe Instituut, a design museum in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
In May 2019 during design week in Salone, Italy she was acknowledged by Instagram as one of four artists who present themselves successfully through social media. In March 2018 she gave a lecture, workshop to go along with her exhibition at Fabrica Research Center in Venice, Italy. Plastic Ocean’s first solo exhibition opened June 2018 in Amsterdam at Christie’s in collaboration with Colette Olof’s “O,Wonder!”.
Her first exhibition of her sculptures opened March 2019 in Maastricht in The Netherlands and later that year in Cape Town in collaboration with Greenpeace Africa.
Artworks
Media
Highlights
Recommendations
Collections
Shows
Market position
CV
Artworks by Thirza Schaap
Media
Bildhalle is pleased to announce the representation of the Dutch artist Thirza Schaap (1971*).
Wandering along the beach, the artist finds plastic that has washed ashore and once in her atelier transforms it into beautiful sculptures. By photographing these sculptures, she tries to evoke an emotional response from the public by creating a contradiction. A clash between the initial aesthetic appeal and after a second look: repulsion and the realization of the tragedy that waste causes.
Thirza Schaap in her own words: “Plastic Ocean is a project which I started to create awareness around pollution, to try and prevent – or at least reduce – the use of plastic. As a child I would walk over beaches and through fields and forests to collect beautiful shells, shimmering stones, feathers and funnily shaped branches. Much later, when spending more time on the beaches all over the world, I found myself doing the same thing. Only to discover that I started filling my pockets with trash instead of treasure. Simply documenting the washed up, eroded plastic findings wasn’t doing justice to the beauty of their colors and textures. I decided to separate them from any reference to their original environment, so that they became stand-alone objects – the basis of my compositions.”
By courtesy of Eyeforce and Frank Solomon
Highlights
Shows
Market position
Awards
• 2000 PANL Photography award, The Netherlands
• 2013 Short film Lina nominated for the Montreal film festival, Canada
• 2000 PANL Photography award, The Netherlands
• 2013 Short film Lina nominated for the Montreal film festival, Canada
CV
Art fairs
2021
• Art Rotterdam, Bildhalle, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
• Unseen, Bildhalle, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2020
• Art Rotterdam, WeLikeArt, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
• Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg, South Africa
2019
• Art Rotterdam, WeLikeArt, Rotterdam The Netherlands
• Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg, South Africa
Solo exhibitions
2021
• book launch and exhibition, Bildhalle Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• Toronto Photo Festival, curated by Sara Knellman, Toronto, Canada
2019
• DSM Heerlen, curated by Catharien Romijn, The Netherlands
• Greenpeace Africa, Waterfront, Cape Town, South Africa
2018
• Ubuntu, Plastic Ocean, Christie’s Amsterdam, curated by Colette Olof, “O,Wonder!”, The Netherlands
2009
• Solo exhibition and book presentation Play Dead at Gallery Christian Ouwens Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Awards
• 2000 PANL Photography award, The Netherlands
• 2013 Short film Lina nominated for the Montreal film festival, Canada
Books
• 2021 Plastic Ocean published by 1605 Publishers, Bastiaan Woudt, foreword by Lidewij Edelkoort
• 2009 Play Dead published by Christian Ouwens and text by Bianca Stigter
Selection of magazines:
Het Financieele Dagblad, Saturday Telegraph, Elle, Figaro, Glamour, Vogue, Volkskrant Magazine, Gracia, Das Magazine, Wired, Times, Dazed China, Musée Magazine, 20er Magazine, Broadmagazine, Aestetica
2016-2021 (ongoing project)
Plastic Ocean project
Photographs, sculptures/assemblages and moving images
2021
• Art Rotterdam, Bildhalle, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
• Unseen, Bildhalle, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2020
• Art Rotterdam, WeLikeArt, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
• Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg, South Africa
2019
• Art Rotterdam, WeLikeArt, Rotterdam The Netherlands
• Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg, South Africa
Solo exhibitions
2021
• book launch and exhibition, Bildhalle Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• Toronto Photo Festival, curated by Sara Knellman, Toronto, Canada
2019
• DSM Heerlen, curated by Catharien Romijn, The Netherlands
• Greenpeace Africa, Waterfront, Cape Town, South Africa
2018
• Ubuntu, Plastic Ocean, Christie’s Amsterdam, curated by Colette Olof, “O,Wonder!”, The Netherlands
2009
• Solo exhibition and book presentation Play Dead at Gallery Christian Ouwens Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Awards
• 2000 PANL Photography award, The Netherlands
• 2013 Short film Lina nominated for the Montreal film festival, Canada
Books
• 2021 Plastic Ocean published by 1605 Publishers, Bastiaan Woudt, foreword by Lidewij Edelkoort
• 2009 Play Dead published by Christian Ouwens and text by Bianca Stigter
Selection of magazines:
Het Financieele Dagblad, Saturday Telegraph, Elle, Figaro, Glamour, Vogue, Volkskrant Magazine, Gracia, Das Magazine, Wired, Times, Dazed China, Musée Magazine, 20er Magazine, Broadmagazine, Aestetica
2016-2021 (ongoing project)
Plastic Ocean project
Photographs, sculptures/assemblages and moving images