Marcia Haffmans has explored the versatility of lines through painted abstract interpretations of the horizon that gradually turned into etched lines of mark-making into wet paint, evolving into imageries of etched, illegible script on canvas. Making handwritings part of this layered language was a natural progression whereby the conceptual focus turned into scripts recounting oppression. Haffmans’ recent work consists of conceptual script-based explorations through 3-D installations where the effort is focused on giving a novel dimension to unseen contemporary voices through materials and techniques.
Haffmans worked as a public defender in the Netherlands before she immigrated to the US. In Minnesota she has continued pro bono commitments with blind, immigrant, unhoused, low-income and other people who are too often marginalized by society. Haffmans received a 2016 Jerome Fiber Artists Project Fellowship to develop work regarding the history and family component of her Script under Suppression concept, which can also be a platform for the silenced voices of too many contemporary people. She received a 2017 Artist Initiative grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board for SCRIPT FROM WITHIN, which evolved into a collaborative art project with women experiencing incarceration that continued well beyond its funding stage. Haffmans is carrying on with this work upon her recent relocation to Richmond, VA through initial support of a cultural equity grant from the National Endowment for the Arts/American Rescue Plan administered by CultureWorks of Richmond. She continues to offer art for women locked up at the local city jail with her program Connecting Through Lines.
Haffmans’ art has been shown at galleries in the Midwest, East Coast and across the US, including Regis Center for Art, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Walker Art Center, Duluth Art Institute, DeVos Art Museum and Norman Rockwell Museum. Her work has also been exhibited in the Netherlands, Italy, Spain and South Korea.
Haffmans worked as a public defender in the Netherlands before she immigrated to the US. In Minnesota she has continued pro bono commitments with blind, immigrant, unhoused, low-income and other people who are too often marginalized by society. Haffmans received a 2016 Jerome Fiber Artists Project Fellowship to develop work regarding the history and family component of her Script under Suppression concept, which can also be a platform for the silenced voices of too many contemporary people. She received a 2017 Artist Initiative grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board for SCRIPT FROM WITHIN, which evolved into a collaborative art project with women experiencing incarceration that continued well beyond its funding stage. Haffmans is carrying on with this work upon her recent relocation to Richmond, VA through initial support of a cultural equity grant from the National Endowment for the Arts/American Rescue Plan administered by CultureWorks of Richmond. She continues to offer art for women locked up at the local city jail with her program Connecting Through Lines.
Haffmans’ art has been shown at galleries in the Midwest, East Coast and across the US, including Regis Center for Art, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Walker Art Center, Duluth Art Institute, DeVos Art Museum and Norman Rockwell Museum. Her work has also been exhibited in the Netherlands, Italy, Spain and South Korea.
More of Marcia's artwork: