Iris Kensmil
Iris Kensmil (Amsterdam, 1970) is a Dutch visual artist of Surinamese descent. Her body of work consists of paintings, drawings and installations. She perceives herself as a chronicler, enhancing the canon of the Arts with images of black people carving their own place in history. “In my work I draw on the European tradition of painting and drawing, on contemporary concepts of image and artist’s strategies, and on the history behind my world of experience as a person with black skin.”
Kensmil studied at the Minerva Academy in Groningen. Since 2014 she is member of the jury of Dutch Royal Award for Modern Painting. In 2015, she had a solo exhibition featuring a collection of portraits at Club Solo in Breda. In 2017 her work was part of the exhibition Zwart en Revolutionair at the Black Archives in Amsterdam. Together with the work by visual artists Remy Jungerman (1959) and the work by Iris Kensmil (1970), brought together in a joint presentation by curator Benno Tempel, has been selected as the Dutch entry for the 58th edition of the Venice Biennale, which was presented in the Dutch pavilion in 2019.
- De Volkskrant - De duistere schilderijen van Natasja Kensmil laten de schaduwzijde van de 17de eeuw zien
- Personal website of Iris Kensmil
- The Black Archives - Zwart en revolutionair
