Raquel van Haver

Raquel van Haver (1989, Colombia, lives and works in the Netherlands) refers to her work as ‘loud’ paintings that sympathetically portray people on the fringes of society. Her works are often monumental in scale, at times dark and ominous, colourful and energetic, negotiating boundaries between alienation and recognition. Van Haver explores identity, meditation, presentation, spirituality, urbanism and the diaspora, while drawing inspiration from African, Western, Caribbean and Latin American cultures within her community in South-East Amsterdam. She also spends long periods abroad gathering source material in both West Africa and South America. Her work has been exhibited in a solo exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, at the Dordrechts Museum, Netherlands, LagosPhoto festival, Nigeria, and BOZAR Brussels, Belgium. She recently won the prestigious Dutch Royal Prize for Painting and the Amsterdam Art Award.