Biography
Marjolein Wouters was born in Ireland but spent her early childhood living in both Antwerp, Belgium and Leinster, Ireland. From an early age she showed signs of wanting to be an artist. The artist, Dick Joynt(1938-2003), a family friend, encouraged this interest, allowing Marjolein to make small art pieces in his workshop. Yearly trips with her mother to The Knitting and Stitching Show in the RDS, Dublin was another important influence on her art career. Marjolein received a First in Visual Arts Practice (BA) at Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology (IADT). Her art practice had developed into a mainly printmaking discipline that is heavily influenced by domestic crafts. She then attended Buckinghamshire New University in High Wycombe and completed her Masters in Printmaking with a distinction. Her work was accepted into the Open Selection for Eigse 2009 and she is a member of the group Just Arrived, who in 2010 displayed their publication Anti-sense in The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin. In December 2011, her work was shown in the Masters Exhibition Magnify/Multiply in londonprintstudio and Buckinghamshire. The pieces prepared for this are based on the culture of knitting, in particular the artist's personal and historically influenced attachment to the pasttime. In 2013, she had her first solo exhibition Getting By at the Tate Guerin Gallery in Wells House and Gardens in Wexford. The exhibition continued Marjoein's exploration of self-identity through an affinity with knitting.