Picture by © Tom Jungbluth
Anni Mertens (1995) is a Luxembourgish artist currently living and working in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
She grew up in Luxembourg and pursued her studies later on at the HKU in Utrecht, Netherlands where she graduated in Fine Arts in July 2019. After doing a Premaster in Architecture at ArtEz and working in Utrecht she moved to Gent to deepen her practice by doing a Master of Fine Arts in the Ceramic and Glass department at LUCA School of Arts.
Drawing inspiration from the absurdity of everyday life,
Anni Mertens' sculptures reflect a surreal blend of humor and irony.
Her practice revolves around making ceramic sculptures combined with steel, wood, and found objects. Through exaggerated gestures and unexpected details, she seeks to evoke laughter while also triggering deeper contemplation. Playing with illusion, challenging the viewer’s perception and revealing that things may appear different than they seem.
By playfully contrasting textures and materials, her work encourages sensory exploration. She aims to seduce and intrigue the viewer, presenting static forms that suggest fluid motion and surprising lightness despite their weight.
Using clay, which transforms from a malleable, soft material to a stone-hard form once fired, she creates pieces that embody striking contradictions. Her sculptures appear elastic and soft, mimicking the stretch and flow of rubber, yet they are solid. This interplay invites viewers to explore the paradoxes within each piece.
The physical work is presented in spatial installations. Twisted tubes and volumes, sometimes inflated or deflated, blown up in scale or smaller pieces are grouped together to create a theatre of the absurd. What may initially appear as a static sculptural landscape, are in fact, dynamic compositions. These dynamics are translated into warped forms of ceramic objects hanging, stretching, squeezing and leaning in the space.
Picture taken during a studio visit by © Silvia Arenas
