Marleen Sleeuwits

Marleen Sleeuwits (born 23 June 1980) is a Dutch multidisciplinary artist working in photography, sculpture, and installation. Based in The Hague, her art aims to challenge perceptions of scale, perspective and spatial reality. Her work is characterised by what she terms the "peau des villes" (skin of cities) concept, exploring how humans relate to built environments through temporary interventions in vacant spaces. Her work engages with architectural spaces and the built environment, often involving temporary interventions in vacant or unused locations.

Sleeuwits has exhibited internationally with solo shows at institutions such as Fotomuseum Den Haag, Kunsthal, and the Centre Photographique Rouen Normandie. Her work is held in collections including Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Valkhof Museum and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She was recognized as FOAM Talent in 2012 and won the Meijburg Art Commission in 2019.

Early life and education Sleeuwits was born on 23 June 1980 in Enschede, Netherlands.

At the age of 14, she took a photography course at a local community centre, sparking her interest in photography.

She studied photography at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, earning her bachelor's degree in 2001. She then completed a master's degree in Photography at AKV St. Joost in Breda in 2005. Her artistic practice evolved from photographing spaces to physically intervening in them, and she began constructing her own spaces. She was interested in exploring what she describes as "impersonal environments" — vacant spaces such as empty office buildings, unused shopping centres, and abandoned institutional buildings that became available during economic downturns, particularly after the 2008 financial crisis.

Sleeuwits often incorporates common architectural elements, such as ceiling panels, insulation, and fluorescent lighting. Many of her installations are interactive, allowing viewers to navigate through the structures. Drawing inspiration from ordinary environments such as sports fields or changing rooms, her work often evokes a sense of alienation in these familiar spaces.

Her 2021 solo exhibition Isomatrix at Kunsthal in Rotterdam explored the boundary between fiction and reality using materials such as neon lights, foil, photographic prints, and mirrors to manipulate perspective, reflection, and scale within architectural spaces. In her 2025 solo exhibition Enter the Cube at the Fotomuseum Den Haag, Sleeuwits created a site-specific installation in dialogue with the work of Sol LeWitt.

Sleeuwits's first major monograph, On the Soft Edge of Space, was published in 2016. It featured 200 images across 276 pages with essays by Edo Dijksterhuis, Basje Boer, and Freek Lomme. De Volkskrant selected the publication as one of the best Dutch photography books of 2016.

Awards and recognition 2022: Kunstenaar Basis grant (also awarded other grants from Mondriaan Fund) 2019: Meijburg Art Commission — an award to make a site-specific work for KPMG Meijburg & Co offices, for which she made Interior no. 52 (2019) for KPMG Meijburg & Co's Amstelveen office. The work features dynamic lighting cycles and explores the boundaries between two and three-dimensional space. 2013: Prix de Rome (nominated) — Netherlands' art award for artists under 35. 2012: Foam Talent, Foam Fotografiemuseum, Amsterdam — annual recognition program for emerging photographers.

Publications