Joline Kwakkenbos

Initially trained in fashion design, Kwakkenbos developed a lasting fascination with historical dress and the transformative power of clothing. Garments—often collected, worn, and repurposed—play a central role in her paintings, functioning as carriers of memory, fantasy, and identity. This fusion of clothing, history, and paint allows her to reimagine femininity not as a fixed appearance, but as something fluid, layered, and self-determined.

Her work ranges from playful, carefree depictions to intimate explorations of seduction, vulnerability, and longing. Vibrant colour palettes and confident, expressive lines lend her figures an emotional immediacy, while repetition and variation disrupt the idea of the self-portrait as a singular moment in time. Instead, Kwakkenbos treats self-portraiture as an evolving form—what she describes as “a legacy of my own existence”—capable of holding multiple selves at once.

Using self-portraiture as a site of expansion, Kwakkenbos positions queerness not as a subject but as a natural mode of expression, intuitively embedded within her practice. Her paintings become invitations: windows into shared emotions and unspoken histories, offering viewers space to recognise themselves—to feel seen, understood, and allowed to be more than what first appears.