BIOGRAPHY

 

Ciska de Hartogh, who studied 3D Monumental Fine Art in South Africa and The Netherlands, seeks to create works of art that are more than purely aesthetic shapes and streamlined forms. Her “social sculptures”, embody an idea, an underlying social issue affecting the general quality of life. Her sculptures Arms Around You, which have been interactively created with hundreds of children and volunteers during festivals and educational projects, function during the building process as “storytelling” shells to raise awareness around topics as war, poverty, illness and nature conservation. Thus not only the final result, but the creative process itself aswell, contributes to her completed work of art.

 

Since graduating from the The Hague Royal Academy of Art De Hartogh has annually exhibited the interactively created sculptures in The Hague City Hall where, inspired by her personal involvement in the fight against AIDS in Africa, she projects video images of AIDS-infected children on to the sculptures. De Hartogh’s work as “art activist” has initiated the Love Life Festival in The Hague and received considerable media attention.

 

Concerned about nature conservation and sustainability Ciska launched a nature conservation art project at museum Museon in The Hague, presenting a collecting of art objects Nature Goodie Bags resembling ladies handbags made from garbage recovered from the beaches during summer Beach Clean Ups. Different perhaps in visual appearance from her other works of art, the collection does share Ciska's signature and philosophy of addressing social and environmental issues through art. As art activist Ciska started advocating about the consequences of human waste dump and initiated garbage cleaning projects and workshops in which she encourages participants to help cleaning up garbage waste, using the material to create luxury art bags from the collected waste material. The participants are free to take their creations back home, thus actively contributing in cleaning nature from human waste and plastic. 

 

In 2010 Ciska was awarded The Green Apple Award by the University of California (UCLA), USA, for "An Outstanding Contribution to a Sustainable Lifestyle” and

in 2019, because of her focus on and involvement with social and humanitarian issues through Fine Art, was awarded the Second Price by Humanistisch Verbond in The Netherlands. 

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2005 - present

Active as independent Fine Artist, Conceptual Artist and Art Activist.
Artist member of STROOM The Hague (Haagse Kunstenaars), The Netherlands
Artist member of Art Society Arti et Amicitiae Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Artist member of Art Society De Haagse Kunstkring (HKK) The Hague, The Netherlands

Artist registration as Fine Artist at Rijksdienst Dienst voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), no 309687

https://rkd.nl/nl/explore/artists/record?query=ciska+de+hartogh&start=0

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2000 - 2005

Royal Academy of Art Fine Art, The Hague. Graduation in Fine Art, June 2005 Masters

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2003

Masterclass Film and Documentary filming and editing Open Studio Amsterdam

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2000 - 2002

Central Interfaculty of Sound and Image in The Hague Netherlands

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1999 - 2000

Private Training in Fine Art Painting at Evert Schellens Studio in The Hague Netherlands

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1998 - 1999

Training in drawing, painting and sculpting at Art Academy Sassenheim The Netherlands

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1995 - 1998

Training in drawing, painting and sculpting at Ruth Prowse School of Fine Art Cape Town, South Africa