Bouke de Vries
UNBROKEN
from 5 july
Bouke de Vries

Bouke de Vries

UNBROKEN

The Princessehof National Museum of Ceramics in Leeuwarden (NL) is proud to present the major retrospective exhibition UNBROKEN, dedicated to the internationally acclaimed artist Bouke de Vries.

Opening in the summer of 2025, this exhibition offers a unique perspective on the work of an artist who transforms broken ceramics into new and unexpected artworks in innovative and multifaceted ways. De Vries, born in Utrecht and now based in London, was originally trained as a restorer. His craftsmanship forms the foundation of an artistic practice that centres on fragility, impermanence, sustainability, and repair.

Bouke de Vries: UNBROKEN runs from 5 July 2025 to 16 August 2026.

Memory Vessel with wax seals, 2020, Bouke de Vries, 46 x 23.5 cm, courtesy of Adrian Sassoon Contemporary Works
Memory Vessel with wax seals, 2020, Bouke de Vries, 46 x 23.5 cm, courtesy of Adrian Sassoon Contemporary Works
Horsey, 2024, Bouke de Vries, 119 x 67 cm, Princessehof National Museum of Ceramics Collection, acquired with support from Club Céramique
Horsey, 2024, Bouke de Vries, 119 x 67 cm, Princessehof National Museum of Ceramics Collection, acquired with support from Club Céramique

Unbroken

UNBROKEN features a selection of highlights from Bouke de Vries’ career, in which he experiments with the theme of decay and repair. This retrospective includes still lifes, relics, and monumental installations: in total, some 95 objects and installations, 11 of which are new works created especially for this exhibition.

Many of the works on view are based on historical objects, yet they also engage with a wide range of contemporary cultural phenomena and elements from the artist’s personal world. Playful references, such as a porcelain sculpture of Marge Simpson as Guan Yin, and other childhood memories appear alongside tributes to the artist’s father and husband, as well as allusions to drug culture and war.
In total, the solo exhibition UNBROKEN features around 95 objects and installations, including eleven new works created especially for this show.

Deconstructed Neolithic Machang, 2019, Bouke de Vries, Neolithic (600-1000 BC) Chinese earthenware on bronze base and mixed media, 50 x 55 cm, courtesy Bouke de Vries
Deconstructed Neolithic Machang, 2019, Bouke de Vries, Neolithic (600-1000 BC) Chinese earthenware on bronze base and mixed media, 50 x 55 cm, courtesy Bouke de Vries

War and Pieces

The exhibition ends grandly with War and Pieces, an eleven-metre-long installation offering a contemporary take on the opulent table centrepieces once favoured by European aristocracy in the 17th and 18th centuries.

At the heart of this chaotic battlefield of shards stands a dramatic and inevitable centrepiece – the ultimate act of war: a nuclear mushroom cloud composed of countless fragments of white porcelain. The cloud is formed from ghostly cherubs, skulls, and decapitated or distorted porcelain dolls – or “Hummels gone wrong,” as De Vries calls them. Christ on the cross and Guan Yin, the Chinese goddess of compassion whose name means “One who hears the world’s cries,” witness the death and destruction; atop the cloud, an angel weeps.

In stark contrast to the whiteness of the porcelain, other figures have mutated into cyborgs, adorned with brightly coloured bionic limbs and heads fashioned from fragments of plastic toys. De Vries refers to these plastic additions as “modern invaders.” He notes: “The ever-increasing ubiquity of non-biodegradable plastic, supposedly indestructible, brings the installation into our own, more toxic age.”

The work has already received significant international acclaim and powerfully captures both the fragility and resilience of ceramics. Since 2012, War and Pieces has toured across Europe, Asia and the United States, with De Vries subtly adapting the installation to each location.

War & Pieces, as displayed in Charlottenburg Berlin, Courtesy of Bouke de Vries
War & Pieces, as displayed in Charlottenburg Berlin, Courtesy of Bouke de Vries

Bouke de Vries: innovator in keramiek

Bouke de Vries, based in London, is renowned for his unique approach to ceramics. He transforms broken and discarded shards into extraordinary artworks that challenge perceptions of beauty and perfection. His background in fashion and textile design, combined with his training as a ceramics restorer, makes his work visually captivating and conceptually stimulating. De Vries’ work is part of many leading international collections and is represented by prominent galleries in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.

Bouke de Vries. Photo by Felix Mueller
Bouke de Vries. Photo by Felix Mueller

Princessehof National Museum of Ceramics

Princessehof National Museum of Ceramics is honoured to be the first museum in the Netherlands to present a major retrospective of Bouke de Vries. With Unbroken, the museum offers an extensive selection of his most iconic works, showcasing the power of broken ceramics in new, unexpected forms. This exhibition, which will attract both national and international visitors, highlights the museum’s mission to present world-class contemporary ceramics. The exhibition is curated by Wendy Gers.

Mailing address
Postbus 1239
8900 CE Leeuwarden (NL)
Visit address
Grote Kerkstraat 9
8911 DZ Leeuwarden (NL)

+31(0)58 2 948 958
info@princessehof.nl

Opening hours

Tuesday to Sunday
from 11.00 to 17.00


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