The journey
Frode Bolhuis (1979, Enschede, NL)
Frode Bolhuis creates sculptures that feel like small, self-contained worlds. His figures are playful, colorful, and seem to carry traces of forgotten myths, ancient stories, or half-remembered dreams. Each piece invites the viewer into a space where the familiar and the magical meet.
Bolhuis’s artistic journey began early. As the son of a sculptor, he was raised in a deeply creative environment. He immersed himself further by studying under English sculptors Edwin Russell and Lorne McKean. After that his formal training continued at the Minerva Academy in Groningen.
He initially focused on large-scale public works — sculptures designed for parks, hospitals, and schools. Yet over time, he was drawn to a more intimate, daily practice: smaller figures that could be shaped quickly, instinctively, without the heavy machinery or long planning processes that public commissions demanded.
Since 2022, he has been working on The Daily Sculptures, a personal project rooted in ritual and spontaneity. Nearly every day, Bolhuis creates a new figure by hand, using materials such as polymer clay, textiles, wood, wire, and found objects. He does not begin with a sketch or a clear concept; instead, he lets the work emerge organically, led by intuition and the feel of the material. This open-ended approach gives each sculpture its own unique life and character.
The resulting figures are lively, tender, sometimes a little strange — and always deeply human. They seem to exist somewhere outside of time: carrying echoes of ancient idols, tribal masks, or futuristic beings, yet at the same time unmistakably personal and contemporary.
For Bolhuis, the daily act of making is both discipline and liberation: a way of staying close to the raw energy of creation without being held back by expectations of grandeur or permanence.
Frode Bolhuis lives and works in Almere, the Netherlands, together with his wife and three children. His practice continues to evolve, but at its heart remains the same quiet commitment: to create, to explore, and to give form to the mystery of life.
