In Chris Rijk’s ceramic work, tradition and provocation come together. He combines the classical visual language of Delft blue pottery with contemporary, unconventional, and often humorous elements. His oeuvre includes recognizable pottery shapes from the ceramic tradition—plates, vases, and flower pyramids—as well as surprising objects such as sport slippers, urinals, and buttplugs. Each piece is richly decorated with refined Delft blue motifs, in which Rijk references to themes such as queer identity, eroticism, power relations, consumerism, and popular culture.Rijk’s work is exuberant, idiosyncratic, and deliberately rubs up against social norms and expectations. His art is uncompromising and openly explicit. Without restraint, he plays with masculine clichés and queer desires, exploring the tension between who you are and who you wish to be. As he himself puts it, Rijk makes “work about the man I want to be—big, muscular, hairy, tattooed, and with a deep voice—but am not: namely, a potter.”Haiko Sleumer
Curator Museum W
2025
McDonald’s fries, electricity pylons in Dutch landscapes, and a raised middle finger in traditional Delft blue. Chris Rijk combines this craft-based, hand-painted ceramics with queer and pop culture. In doing so, he delivers humorous — and at times provocative — criticism of commerce and capitalism. Rijk deliberately pushes boundaries: “Ceramics are seen as harmless, but that’s exactly where the freedom lies. No one expects anything shocking from ceramics.”
Rijk’s work is a personal truth: he chooses both the objects and the subjects. Take, for example, old-fashioned apothecary jars bearing references to TikTok, fast fashion, and Bitcoin. His artworks are intended as a kind of time capsule — because ceramics do not decay. “What will people think when my work is unearthed a thousand years from now? What will these objects say about our present time?”Manique Hendricks
Curator of Contemporary Art
Frans Hals Museum
2025
Vuistdiep in Oud-Holland met Chris Rijk
340 pages on A5, printed on pink paper
2025
This book is an overview of Rijk’s Delftware work from the past years, introduced with an essay by Jasper Martens.
Veertien vazen van Chris Rijk voor arbeiders verklaard door Mady Beversluis
149 pages on A4
2025
This book serves as catalogue to the exhibition Chris Rijksmuseum in Museum W in Weert.
It features an overview of presented works and two long and several shorter essays by philosopher and writer Mady Beversluis on capitalism and (queer) identities.
chrisrijk at chrisrijk.nl
@chrisrijkChris Rijk is represented by Rademakers Gallery in Amsterdam
Chris RijkBorn in 1995 in Woerden, in the Netherlands
Grown up in Alphen aan den Rijn
Lives in Amsterdam
Works in ZaandamChris Rijk is a Dutch artist using classic pottery shapes and traditional Delft Blue to explore identity and consumerism through the lens of visual spectacle.
He graduated with honours from the University of the Arts Utrecht (HKU) in 2017.
Rijk’s work has been shown in leading institutions such as the Frans Hals Museum, Museum W, Centraal Museum Utrecht and Noord-Brabants Museum and at major international art fairs including Art Rotterdam, PAN Amsterdam, ENTER Art Fair and Ceramic Brussels
Since 2022, Rijk has been represented by Rademakers Gallery in AmsterdamSelected Solo Exhibitions
2026 — Ceramics Brussels (solo booth)
2025 — Sex, Drugs and Earthenware, Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem
2025 — Chris Rijksmuseum, Museum W, Weert
2023 — Mens en Gevoelens (Man and feelings), AMC Amsterdam, Amsterdam
2019 — The Strumpet and Other Successes, Projectspace Lokaal, Utrecht
2018 — Cold and Lonely, Hauptstadtstudio, BerlinSelected Group Exhibitions
2026 —Ben ik Mannelijk? (Am I Manly?) Noordbrabants Museum, ’s Hertogenbosch
2025 — TOPVORM, Stadsmuseum Woerden
2025 — Castle of Many Bodies, Centraal Museum Utrecht
2025 — Over the Rainbow, Rademakers Gallery, Amsterdam
2025 — SeXXXshop No Limits! Art Castle, Amsterdam
2025 — Wakker Kussen, Museum Landhuis Oud Amelisweerd
2024 —Food as Origin Twilight Contemporary, London
2024 — SHE KNOWS, Rademakers Gallery, Amsterdam
2023 — Ass Dick Dog, BLAST, Liège
2023 — Let Them Eat Fake Bad Art Presents London
2023 — The Big Ceramics Show, No Limits! Art Castle, Art Rotterdam
2022 — Ministry of Ceramic Affairs, Gallery Vriend van Bavink, Amsterdam
2020 — WLKMTWNDLRLND, Duo show with Danielle Hogendoorn, LOGMAN Gallery, Utrecht
2018 — NVK Keramiek Triënnale, CODA Museum, Apeldoorn
2017 — WALLPAPER, Showroom MAMA, RotterdamSelected Art Fairs
Art Rotterdam
PAN Amsterdam
Ceramic Brussels
ENTER Art Fair, Copenhagen
This Art Fair
Object Rotterdam
Art Utrecht
KunstRAI, Amsterdam
Affordable Art Fair AmsterdamResidencies
2020 —Sundaymorning@EKWC
2020— Opium Atelier
2019 — Tuinatelier, K.F. Heinfonds, Utrecht
2018 —Institut für Alles Mögliche, BerlinPublications
2025 —Veertien vazen van Chris Rijk voor arbeiders verklaard door Mady Beversluis, 146 pages
2025 —Vuistdiep in Oud-Holland met Chris Rijk, 312-pages
2022 - 2024 — Vuistdiep in Oud-Holland met Chris Rijk, Volumes I, II & IIICollections
Rijk’s work is held in public and private collections including:Fondation Louis Vuitton
Frans Hals Museum
Museum W
Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs
HKU
Business Art ServiceSelected publications
Queer History Month | interview with Manique Hendricks, February 2026
Residence feature July 2025
KLEI magazine Chris Rijksmuseum in Museum W*| feature by Hanneke de Leeuw, October 2025
Vind magazine Feature on the work Paradijs | by Haiko Sleumer, July 2025
Collect Ceramic Brussels 2026 | by Elien Haentjens, November 2025
Haarlems Dagblad Uitkijken dat ik niet in de val van het kapitalisme trap | by Jeroen Hoenselaar, 2 augustus 2025
Metropolis M Recente aankopen door musea | feature by Isabel Ferreira de Sousa, winter 2025
Tableau | feature winter 2025
De Limburger Keramische dildo’s tussen de religieuze beelden en een schilderij over vrouwenbesnijdenis: kunst mag best schuren, vindt Museum W | by Rob Cobben, 2 december 2025
Mister Motley Een vaas, een fallus en een lichtvoetig verzet tegen preutsheid- over het werk van Chris Rijk in Museum W | essay by Haiko Sleumer, august 2025
De Telegraaf Beurs voor betaalbare kunst laat zien dat kunst niet snobistisch hoeft te zijn 29 oktober 2025
Winq Chris Rijk serveert homo-erotiek in keramiek | interview by Roel Janssen, March 2025
Het Parool Van Swaffelgordijn tot glas-in-loodvulva’s | by Tara Sikkel, 24 March 2025
Winq 5 vragen aan Chris Rijk Interview, May 2024
Mister Motley Een gebroken identiteit en scherven van herinneringen -Chris Rijks aardewerk representatief voor queer identiteit | essay by Jasper Martens, december 2023
Eigen huis & interieur Op de vaas moet het gebeuren feature by Marianne van Dooyewaard Decem
A selection of recent exhibitions
Sex, drugs and earthenware
Solo exhibition in Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem
July 2025 - July 2026A presentation in the permanent collection of the Museum
Chris Rijksmuseum
Solo exhibition in Museum W in Weert
September 2025 - September 2026An exhibition of Chris Rijk's work in the Museum's permanent collection of cultural and historic objects and art ecclesiastical heritage
Wakker kussen
Group exhibition at Museum Landhuis Oud Amelisweerd
April 2025 – October 2025Eleven contemporary ceramic artists were invited to select a piece of Chinese porcelain from the collection of the Centraal Museum Utrecht and use it as inspiration for a new artwork.
The historical and contemporary ceramic objects were shown together in Landhuis Oud Amelisweerd, which is renowned for its remarkably well-preserved 18th-century Chinese wallpapers.
