sonjavank(at)hotmail.com


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Born: 1960 in Hawera, Taranaki, Aotearoa / New Zealand.
Based in the Netherlands since 1989.

exhibitions + performances





2009

Paintings + sculpture in the Lakenfeesten Kunstroute (art route) in Leiden, The Netherlands.

Curation: Galerie TamTam in 19 windows in Leiden, The Netherlands.

Performance: Greetings from Leiden and an animation in the Go-Ganesha-Go project, Nicosia, Cyprus

Performance: Colonizing Santa Monica in the Santa Monica Promenade, L.A., U.S.A., February 24th

Sailng Home, Whanganui, Aotearoa | New Zealand, February 17th

2008

Dagedraad | Threads of the Day in the Wevershuis (Leiden Museum of Weaving), Leiden, 19 september - 12 october 2008

Wrapped, and at home at Wiebke Morgan, Bethnall Green, London, U.K.

Nga Paepae Hou | New Vessels in The Gallery at the Willesden Green Library Centre, London, U.K.

Conversations, The Subject, in Galerie TamTam, 19 shop windows as part of the TamTam Festival, The Netherlands, curated by Sonja van Kerkhoff Leiden, The Netherlands.

Leiden Reflected in U Bevindt Zich Hier (You Are Here), RAP Gallery, Leiden, The Netherlands.

2007

Generating Plant in Vogel zoekt huis (Bird seeks home), RAP Gallery, Leiden, The Netherlands.

Open Exhibition, Cafe Gallery, Southwark Park, London, U.K.

The video + soundscape dvd, Towndog in the group show, Dogs, Dogs, Dogs in the Expansionist Art Empire Gallery, Leiden.

Installation (Cross Pollination), Sculpting the Suburban Landscape, Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture, Middlesex University, Cat Hill Barnet, London, U.K.

2006

Open Exhibition, Cafe Gallery, Southwark Park, London, U.K.

The Gardeners made with Loren Roosendaal (as part of National Science Week), de Waag, Leiden, The Netherlands, 21 September.

The Gardeners made with Loren Roosendaal (a project for our Media Technology Masters), Scheltema Exhibition Space, Leiden, The Netherlands, 15 - 24 September.

The Gardeners made with Loren Roosendaal (as a Monument Weekend 'attraction'), Scheltema Exhibition Space, Leiden, The Netherlands,
9 - 10 September.

One work in Hommage aan Rembrandt op A4 (Hommage to Rembrandt on A4), Sidac-studio, Hogewoerd 77, Leiden, The Netherlands July - August.

Three works in Between Tulip and Istanbul, DNA or Inspiration in Gallery Genootschap Kunstliefde + 3 works in the Vredenburg Music Centre, Utrecht, curated by Marion Wagenvoort, June - July.

Hanging installation (Fruit), Eating Out, Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture, Middlesex University, Cat Hill Barnet, London, U.K.

2005

Relief Objects: (Vignettes and Interstices), Zoo-a-logical, Knapp Gallery, Regents Park, London, U.K., October - November 2005.

Installation: (Inland Soul at Sea), Grounds for Designs, Museum of Design and Architecture, Middlesex University, Cat Hill Barnet, London, U.K., April - July 2005.

Installation: (Conversations), as part of Dicht op de Muur (Close to the wall), a project of installations in shops in the city of Leiden organized by the Poetry on Walls Foundation (www.muurgedichten.nl), June-July 2005.

Performance: Neighbours, and installations: First Lessons, Inland Soul at Sea, Dans le jardin..., in the XX Sarajevo Winter Arts Festival, Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, February 2005.

2004

Installation Wrapping for a marginal citizen, in the "Off The Wall" festival in Templars Shopping Centre, Oxford, October 2004.

Sculpture Nga Hau e Wha, Molen Park, Urmond, The Netherlands.

Installation Gossamer Prison, Zaostrog Monastry, Croatia.

Installation Parking Spaces in "In the Woods", Millfield House Arts Centre Gardens, London.

Summer Exhibition (Virtue of the Rose), Eden Restuarant, Harrow, London, curated by Belinda Tournier.

Installation Oceania, solo show, Terpkerk, Urmond, The Netherlands.

Object / Sculpture (Generating Plant), Outdoor Habitats Museum of Design and Architecture, Middlesex University, Cat Hill Barnet, London, U.K.

Flash animation in Dialoog 2 (a group exhibition on the theme of two parts in the process of an object. Here I presented a page of numbers (I write numbers down when programming and the other page was a diskette bearing the animation: Fading Roses), 4 - 25 April, Sidac Studio, Leiden.

Installation(Inland Soul) / Sculpture (The Wedding), at the 9 Dragonheads Environment Arts Festival, Cheong-Ju city Art Gallery and in the Daechang Lake nature reserve, South Korea.

2003

Installation (The Subject Encounters), in Diving Deep curated by Kirsty Hall, at the Greenbelt arts festival, Cheltenham, U.K.

Installation (Hommage), Performance Fruits of the Earth and the soundscape/installation: An inland soul at sea at the 2nd Performances Conditionnelles arts festival, Taller, France, August.

Installation (Domestic Self-Surveillance), MoDA outsized, Museum of Design and Architecture, Middlesex University, Cat Hill Barnet, London, U.K.

CBK (Centre for Visual Arts), Certain Measures, Documentation about Oxford, Leiden, The Netherlands.

Q for Quartair, Grains of Salt and Virtue of the Rose, 113 Noordeinde, The Hague, The Netherlands.

2002

Colonising Oxford: performances in Oxford as part of twin-city exchange.

Art Auction performance event / exhibition, Quartair Gallery, The Hague, The Netherlands, September - October, 2002.

Participant in a Sculpture Symposium (With Fire we test the gold, and with gold we test Our servants.), Romanian version of Certain Measures, A Rite of Passage, Tulips from Istanbul, Wrapping for a Marginal Citizen, in Singeorz-Bai, Romania.

Performance (Movement for Mother and Child), Installation (Wrapping for a Marginal Citizen, videos: Wrapping..., Essences and Particularities, Athena, Savour the Experience, in the group show: Domestically Spaced, Space Station Sixty-Five, South-east London, U.K.

Moving On as my response to theme of 'leather' in The Leather Show,
Blue Oyster Gallery, Dunedin, New Zealand, May 2002.

Performance (Parking Spaces...), Installation (Children of Tane, Inspiration)(The Gesture) - in the group show: The Natural curated by Matt Pine and Sonja at Te Wa (The Space), W(h)anganui, New Zealand.

2001

Exhibition, The Travellers, Te Wa (The Space),
W(h)anganui, New Zealand., 1 - 30 November, 2001.

Exhibition of designs for Beelden in de Stad (Art in the City), CBK Leiden,
October, 2001.

Performance / Lecture (Something about New Zealand) - in the Broodplaats performance/lecture summer project at Quartair Gallery, The Hague.

Group Exhibition ( Choice Game), in The Games Room, Out of the Blue, Edinburgh, U.K. August, 2001.

Performance (Juste pour les oiseaux - Strictly for the birds) at the Performances Conditionnelles arts festival, Taller, France, August, 2001.

Group exhibition, Cross Culture, (The Gesture, Bradford Cathedral,
Bradford, U.K., 2001.

Outdoor Video projection: Essences and Particularities, Athena, Wrapping for a Marginal Citizen and Interspaces in the TamTam Cultural Festival, Leiden, June 2001.

Group exhibition, Fauna and Flora, Dans le jardin, Artots,
Den Bosch, May - June, 2001.

Group exhibition, Dans le jardin des beaux arts, in the ARS Aemula Naturae courtyard, Leiden, May - June, 2001. More info about the CDrom project

Group exhibition, Hotels, (Virtue of the Rose, Grains of Salt, Apocalypse with 5 worlds) in connection with the TEFAF conference, Maastricht, March, 2001.

2000

Group exhibition, Keep off the Grass, (Certain Measures, Tulip from Istanbul, Virtue of the Rose, Five pointed star divided)Te Wa, W(h)anganui, Aotearoa / New Zealand, 5 - 30 November, 2000.

Group exhibition, Keep off the Grass (Certain Measures, Tulip from Istanbul, Virtue of the Rose, Five pointed star divided), Artscape Gallery, Palmerston North, Aotearoa / New Zealand, 13 -28 October, 2000.

Group exhibition, Keep off the Grass (Certain Measures, Tulip from Istanbul, Virtue of the Rose, Five pointed star divided), Blue Pacific Gallery, Pataka Museum, Porirua, (Wellington) Aotearoa / New Zealand, 24 September - 5 October, 2000.

Group exhibition, Om de Japanse Tuin (Around the Japanese Garden), ARS galerie, Leiden, 10 September - 29 October, 2000.

Art auction performance event, Kunstveiling (Art Auction), Quartair Gallery, The Hague, The Netherlands, 29 September - 1st October, 2000.

Group exhibition/project, Ark2000, Clare College Mission Church, Dilston Grove, London, SE16, U.K., 30th July - 27 August, 2000.

Korero Korero, Telling Stories,
Exhibition & Arts Residency with Sarah Buist
Sarjeant Gallery/Te Whare o Rehua Whanganui, Aotearoa / New Zealand, 7 July - 27 August, 2000. Airing the snails, performance down the War Memorial Steps, W(h)anganui, Aotearoa / New Zealand.

Group exhibition, Het menselijk Lichaam (The human body), old Bonnenfanten Museum, Maastricht, The Netherlands, 30th June - July, 2000.

Video installation in The Posthuman Project, Waterloo Action, London.

1999

Video installation in Diversity, Certain Measures and Grains of Salt in Galleria Halvare, Oulu, Finland.

Op Formaat, Inkt, The Hague, The Netherlands.

Essay as part of Materie/Mysterie, an exhibition of essays and installations on the theme of ´Material/Mystery´ in the DeFKa exhibition space, Assen.

Video shown in the PVA new media festival, Swipe, Bridport, U.K.

Installation, het archief (an old archival building in the centre of the city), The Hague, The Netherlands.

Performances & Installation as part of InterAction during the Bermondsey Carnival:
Tabula Rasa, performance, InterAction Marquee, Southwark Park, London, U.K.; The Living Creature, performance, Rosegarden, Southwark Park, London, U.K.; The Living Creature, installation, CafeGallery, Southwark Park, London, U.K.; Image defining Word defining Image, The Gallery, Stoke Newington Library, London, U.K.

1998

Installation in Zien is Geloven (Seeing is Believing), de Vishal, Haarlem, The Netherlands.

Performance / Installation (with text & video projections, with Gaudi Hoedaya & Sarah Buist) during the ISEA
(InterSociety for Electronic Arts) international symposium, Manchester, U.K.

Sculpture exhibition, Het Zuiderpark, Den Haag, The Netherlands.

The Other Gallery, Banff Centre for the Arts, Canada.

"Haagse Salon", City Hall, The Hague, The Netherlands.

1997

Greenwich and Docklands Festival Fringe, I tend to see..., Gallery Fresh, London, U.K.

Sixth Sense, Albert Dock, Video installation, Visionfest, Liverpool, U.K.

Reciclar Recolocar (Recycle Relocate), performance + installation at the Creative Recycling Marathon, DRAP ART en the Museum of Contemporary Art, Barcelona, Spain.
Two works in Alumni, old Bonnefanten museum, Maastricht.
Installation, Crossing Borders, Studio Orange, Villach, Austria.

1996

Performances for the Hull Time Based Arts festival, "Skint", Hull, U.K.
Installation in the Arcen Castle Gardens, Arcen, The Netherlands, April - Oct '96.
The Delden Printmakers´ Show, Delden, The Netherlands.
Installation on Terschelling Island for the Oerol arts festival.

1995

Video in the World Wide Video festival, Den Haag, The Netherlands.
Video exhibition, Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid, Spain.
Computer installation for the Mycelium project, Landbouwbelang, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Gulden Vlam regional prize for a video.

1994

"Prima Donna", Amazone, Amsterdam,The Netherlands.
"Sonja's Choice" Kunstcentrum, Sittard, The Netherlands.

1993

"Ohne rosen geht es nicht", Wewerka Galerie, Berlin, Germany.
Graduation exhibition, MECC, Maastricht, with performances during the European Art Schools Biennale, Maastricht.
The Aalschot Printmakers´ Show, Belgium.

1992

"The Last Rose of Summer", Galerie Wanda Reiff, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
"Ohne rosen geht es nicht", Galerie Wanda Reiff, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
"1000 maquettes", De Fabriek, Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
"The art shop", Galerie Henn, Maastricht, The Netherlands.

1984 - 1989

About four to five exhibitions per year in various cities in New Zealand.
Most were in the South Island.


Education :: Work :: Lectures :: Papers

2009

paper for GICT Issues of Engagement in Augmented Reality Installations, LIACS (Leiden Institute for Advanced Computer Science), Leiden University, The Netherlands.

Lecture about my installations, performances and interactive work for: The Auckland City Art Gallery public programme,
New Zealand.
The Sarjeant Art Gallery, Whanganui, New Zealand.

2008

Graduation paper for a Masters in Media Technology, Issues of Engagement in Augmented Reality Installations, LIACS (Leiden Institute for Advanced Computer Science), Leiden University, The Netherlands.

Issues of Engagement mini-symposium organized with Alex Reuneker and Kirsten Korevenaar, Leiden University, The Netherlands.

2006

Student paper looking at online gaming, stereotypes, and some alternatives, at The Computing Women Congress, a Pan-Pacific congress for women in IT, 11th - 19th February 2006, Department of Computer Science, University of Waikato, New Zealand.

2005 - 8

MSc in Media Technology, LIACS (Leiden Institute for Advanced Computer Science), University of Leiden, The Netherlands.

2005

Slide Lectures: School of Fashion Design, University of Technology, Beijing, P.R. China, Dauchang Arts Festival, Beijing; Workshop on Education and Creativity for the International Educational Institute, Macau.

2000

Guest Lecturer on contemporary art trends in Europe for: The Whanganui School of Arts, New Zealand; The Otago School of Fine Arts; The Christchurch Polytechnic; The New Plymouth School of Fine Arts. Workshops for the Sculpture department + the Painting department for The Whanganui School of Arts.

1999 -

Freelance work as a webdesigner, and for cdrom productions, working in video (premiere) and interaction (director). Since 2001 also in flash. see: design

1999 - 2007

Employed 3/5 time as a website designer for TeleacNOT (Dutch educational broadcasting corporation) in Hilversum, The Netherlands.

1998 - 1999

A one year "multimedia designer" course through SPC in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

1998

Lecture: Aspects of the spirit in N.Z. Maori Art, at the Banff Centre for the Arts, Banff, Canada.

1993 -

Private lessons in English, freelance translation and website and general design / layout work.

1991 - 2002

Unpaid work as editor for Arts Dialogue, an international magazine on the arts. Still a member of the BAFA board.

1995

Taught a five day life drawing course at an arts academy, Sussex, England.

1993 - 4

Assisted the students in audio-visual department at the Maastricht Art School. 20 hours a week.

1993

Graduated from the Maastricht School of Visual Arts.

1987-88

Full-time art teacher (18 mths) at Dunedin, New Zealand. Dunedin North Intermediate (11-13 year olds), Dunedin, New Zealand.

1987

Full-time art teacher (for 4 months) Moreau College (12 - 18 year olds), Dunedin, New Zealand.

1986

Series of lectures on Picasso, for a teleconference (transmitted simutaneously to seven locations around the South Island with live radio feedback) at the Otago University.

Diploma of Teaching (secondary).

1984-87

Gave courses on life drawing, printmaking, and art history, at the Workers Education Association (WEA - similiar to Open University), Dunedin, New Zealand.

1981-88

Subjects passed at the University of Otago (Stage I & II of a Bachelor of Arts); Philosophy, Education, Linguistics, Maori Studies, English literature, Art History, and the Linguistics of English.

1980-82

Diploma of Fine Arts (printmaking), School of Art, Otago, New Zealand.