Joyce Overheul (1989, 's-Hertogenbosch, NL) grew up in an environment where it is not self-evident that women are always treated the same as men. From her sense of justice, she has always been politically interested in things like women's rights, emancipation, feminism and activism, and Overheul now makes art about that. In a broad sense, Overheul is interested in how human behavior comes about and how we as humans affect each other.
Overheul makes artworks from textiles, often based on photography. She works a lot with craft techniques that have long been dismissed as typical "women's hobbies, leisure activities. She combines this with politically charged subjects about women's rights, emancipation and feminism, among others, so that a sharp contrast is created between the hard content and the soft material. With soft-looking art, Overheul draws the visitor in while they do not yet always realize that the message is a political statement.
Overheul studied Fine Art at the HKU in Utrecht, followed by a master's degree in Artistic Research at maHKU.
Her work has been exhibited in the Netherlands and abroad and she also creates commissioned work, the highlights being the solo exhibition Let's Get Political at Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle and being allowed to realize the war memorial for resistance woman Truus van Lier for the Municipality of Utrecht.In 2023-2024 she will have her second museum solo presentation at Museum W in Weert. In 2021 Waanders Kunst published the book 'Let's Get Political' about the first ten years of her artistic practice, and in 2023 the activist birthday calendar 'Je mag ook niks meer zeggen' (You can't say anything anymore) with 12 works of art by her own hand was published.