Anouk Kruithof
Anouk Kruithof is a Dutch artist whose exhibitions and books merge social, conceptual, photographic, performance and video. She is best known for her artist's book Happy Birthday to You. Kruithof has had published, or self-published, a number of books of her work, which has also been exhibited in various solo and group shows including at Museum of Modern Art in New York. She has received an Infinity Award from the International Center of Photography; both the Photography Jury Grand Prize and the Photo Global scholarship from Hyères International Fashion and Photography Festival, and the Charlotte Köhler Prize from Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds. She is based in New York.
Life and work
Kruithof was born in 1981 in Dordrecht, the Netherlands. She studied photography at the Academy of Art and Design St. Joost, based in Breda. She completed an artist's residency at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin in 2008–2009. In 2011 she moved to New York to live and work on her art projects.Her book Happy Birthday to You was praised by Martin Parr and her book A Head with Wings was praised by critic Jörg Colberg.
Publications
Publications by Kruithof
- Het Zwarte gat = The Black Hole. Rotterdam, the Netherlands: Episode Publishers, 2006..
- Playing Borders, This Contemporary State of Mind. Berlin: Revolver Publishing by Vice Versa Vertrieb, 2009.. Edition of 400 copies.
- Becoming Blue. Berlin: Revolver Publishing by Vice Versa Vertrieb, 2009.. Texts in English, German and Dutch.
- The Daily Exhaustion. Baden, Switzerland: Kodoji Press, 2010.. Edition of 5000 copies. Free newspaper.
- A Head with Wings. St Paul, MN: Little Brown Mushroom, 2011.. Edition of 1000 copies. Commissioned by Alec Soth; design by Kruithof, Soth and Hans Seeger.
- Lang Zal ze Leven = Happy Birthday to You. Self-published, 2011.. Edition of 500 copies.
- Pixel-stress. Paris: RVB Books, 2013.. Edition of 1000 copies.
- SPBH pamphlet IV: Case report 468. London: Self Publish, Be Happy, 2013.. Edition of 500 copies. Pamphlet, folds out into poster. Text by Hillery Bosworth, photographs by Kruithof and series editor Nicholas Muellner. According to the colophon, "The pamphlet was created in conversation with the collection of Jan Larsen and Tang Nguyen, on April 26 and 27, 2013 in New York city" and "This special edition pamphlet was commissioned by and distributed in conjunction with 10x10 American photobooks in association with the International Center of Photography library, Photobook Facebook Group and Tokyo Institute of Photography."
- Untitled. Rotterdam: Stress Press, 2014.. Edition of 500 copies.
- The Bungalow. Eindhoven, the Netherlands: Onomatopee, 2014.. Uses photographs by Brad Feuerhelm. Edited in collaboration with Freek Lomme and Christof Nussli. Edition of 1200 copies.
- Neutral. Munich, Germany: Galerie Jo van de Loo; self-published, 2016. Text by Christoph Sehl. Edition of 200 copies.
- Automagic. Madrid and Mexico City: Editorial RM; self-published: Stresspress.biz, 2016. With text by Kruithof and Iñaki Domingo. Edition of 1000 copies.
Publications with contributions by Kruithof
- Borough stories: Drawings and portraits from neighborhoods in New York, Berlin and Amsterdam = tekeningen en portretten uit wijken in New York, Berlijn en Amsterdam. Silvia Russel, 2009.. Drawings by Silvia Russel, photographs by Kruithof and others, essay by Mitchell Marco, preface by Louky Keijsers, translation by Nienke de Maat.
- The Riso Book: New York. San Francisco, CA: Colpa Press; New York, NY: Endless Editions, 2014. Kruithof with Paul Branca, David Horvitz, Matthew Palladino and Dexter Sinister. Each artist contributed to 20 pages. Fifth in The Riso Book series. Edition of 100 copies.
- Photographers' Sketchbooks. London: Thames & Hudson, 2014.. Edited by Stephen McLaren and Bryan Formhals.
- Printed Web #4: Public, Private, Secret. Paul Soulellis; Library of the Printed Web and International Center of Photography Museum, 2016.. 40 pages. Published on the occasion of an exhibition, Public, Private, Secret, at the International Center of Photography Museum, 2016–2017. Print-on-demand newsprint. Work by Kruithof, Wolfgang Plöger, Lorna Mills, Molly Soda, Travess Smalley, Angela Genusa, Eva and Franco Mattes, Elisabeth Tonnard, and Christopher Clary. With a text by Michael Connor.
Awards
- 2011: Photography Jury Grand Prize, Hyères International Fashion and Photography Festival, Hyères, France. For Happy Birthday to You and The Daily Exhaustion.
- 2011: scholarship to the Photo Global programme of the School of Visual Arts in New York, Hyères International Fashion and Photography Festival, Hyères, France.
- 2012: Infinity Award, Young Photographer category, International Center of Photography, New York, NY.
- 2014: Charlotte Köhler Prize, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds. €30000 prize.
Exhibitions
Solo exhibitions
- 2009: Becoming Blue and Enclosed Content Chatting Away In The Colour Invisibility, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, 20 February – 8 March 2009.
- 2009/2010: Becoming Blue and Enclosed Content Chatting Away In The Colour Invisibility, Museum Het Domein Sittard, Sittard, Netherlands, 26 September – 3 January 2010.
- 2010: Becoming Blue and Enclosed Content Chatting Away In The Colour Invisibility, Galerie Adler, Frankfurt, 13 March – 1 May 2010.
- 2012: Fragmented Entity, 5 January – 4 February 2012, Boetzelaer Nispen, London.
- 2013: Every Thing is Wave, 7 September – 26 October 2013, Boetzelaer Nispen, London.
- 2015: #Evidence, Boetzelaer Nispen, Amsterdam, September–November 2015.
- 2016: Neutral, Galerie Jo van de Loo, Munich, Germany, June–July 2016.
Exhibitions with others and at festivals
- 2012: Untitled, Tour des Templiers, Hyères International Fashion and Photography Festival, Hyères, France.
- 2012: The Youth Code, part of Daegu Photo Biennale, Daegu, South Korea. Included work by Kruitof as well as Ryan McGinley, Willem Popelier and Viviane Sassen.
- 2015: Ocean of Images: New Photography 2015, Museum of Modern Art, New York, November 2015 – March 2016. Photographs by Kruithof as well as Ilit Azoulay, Zbyněk Baladrán, Lucas Blalock, Edson Chagas, Natalie Czech, DIS, Katharina Gaenssler, David Hartt, Mishka Henner, David Horvitz, John Houck, Yuki Kimura, Basim Magdy, Katja Novitskova, Marina Pinsky, Lele Saveri, Indrė Šerpytytė, and Lieko Shiga.