top of page
Glass April 14 edited-2.jpg

Hanne Arends

Exploring identity, playfulness & the tension between image and reality

Introduction

Hanne Arends

Hanne Arends is a Dutch multidisciplinary artist whose work moves between sculpture, glass, textiles, and monumental materials. Working from Amsterdam, she creates a visual language grounded in emotional paradoxes where softness meets hardness, vulnerability meets strength, and playfulness becomes a form of truth.

​

Trained at both the Design Academy Eindhoven and the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Arends weaves fine art, craft, and design into a distinctly human universe. Her practice includes monumental marble sculptures such as Freddy Marbic, expressive hand-blown glass figures from the Rebels series, and large-scale textile works like Where Were You.

​

Across all mediums, Arends explores how we navigate a world shaped by distraction, distortion, and emotional distance. Her work invites viewers to reconnect with their inner child, to embrace authenticity, and to rediscover the freedom of imagination.

In a time where reality often feels unstable, her sculptures offer something rare: stillness, honesty, and a return to what feels real.

IMG_0555 2.jpeg

Recent Works 2025 - 2023 

Rebels 

Rebels are all about being free of expectations.

​

The glass sculptures in this series reflect on how playfulness and spontaneity fade as we grow older. Born from nothing more than a quick, childlike sketch, the Rebels came to life. Imperfect, bold, and unapologetically authentic.

Glass April 14 edited-6.jpg
IMG_8909.jpeg

Collective Loneliness

Collective Loneliness addresses the topic that we are more digitally connected than ever, yet we are living through an epidemic of loneliness. 

Freddy Marbic

Freddy Marbic serves as a reminder to maintain a critical perspective on the world around us, highlighting that not everything is as it initially appears. 

Freddy marbic1.png
Tufting.jpg

De Karel Serie

The Karel Series, a collection of life-sized hand-tufted wall hangings, captures intense emotions through facial expressions. These visuals serve as self-portraits, embodying Arends' mood shifts across life. 

Masks

The project Masks emerged from a fascination with identity and the ease with which we can modify it in this era. In both real life and online, we can easily portray ourselves in a manufactured way. 

Benny.Lee DSC04515.jpg
ORG_DSC03454.jpg

Artist Statement 

I work across marble, glass, textiles, ceramics, and steel to explore freedom within constraint and create connection through material. My artist statements focus on paradoxes in identity and emotion, examining the conflict between appearance and reality, especially in relation to societal expectations and the loss of childhood wonder in adulthood. Themes such as collective loneliness versus digital connection recur throughout my practice. Projects like Freddy Marbic, Rebels, Collective Loneliness embody this search in different ways, yet share the same method: letting process lead, embracing vulnerability, and finding joy through surrendering to the unexpected.

bottom of page