The artist duo Maria Verstappen and Erwin Driessens from Amsterdam work together at their complex installations and artworks since 1990. They shift between spacious installations, animations and small sculptures. They develop their own machines, which realize their generative art controlled by a computer. For example, an enchanting “ice landscape” is created from an accumulation of wax by means of a slow melting and hardeninf process.

At their current art project Driessens & Verstappen scan the interior of buildings with their own developed hardware and materialize the resulting sculptures with a 3-D Printer. This surprises the viewer with a new perception of the space. Their series of work base upon a collecion of digital data from interior spaces, for example upon the data of the Bergkerk in Deventer, NL or the DAM GALLERY in Frankfurt. The resulting 3-D objects are not only a copy of the interior, they integrate the aspect of perspective. This encourages the viewer to imagine the actual interior, which he can only guess at.

Driessens & Verstappen had International exhibitions among others at Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam and Neue Pinakothek, Munich. The artist couple gives lectures at universities and conferences such as Siggraph, Los Angeles or Sonics Acts, Amsterdam. Their artwork is part of major collections like the MMK in Frankfurt/Germany or the Central Museum in Utrecht. 2013 they were awarded the Witteveen+Bos Art+Technology Award, Deventer.

Erwin Driessens, born 1963
Maria Verstappen, born 1964
Living and working in the Netherlands.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2020
Pareidolia, V2_ Lab for the Unstable Media, Museumnacht010, Rotterdam
2017
Deep Dive, Young Projects, Los Angeles, USA
2014
GLOW, site specific installation for 360° BRNDWR, Former Firehouse, Maastricht, Netherlands
2013
Points of View, Bergkerk, Deventer, Netherlands
2010
Shifting Landscapes, gallery VOUS ETES ICI, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2008
Tschumi Tulips, Tschumi Pavilion, Groningen, Netherlands
2005
Morphogenesis, gallery VOUS ETES ICI, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2002
Follicle, Mediamatic, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2001
Driessens & Verstappen, gallery VOUS ETES ICI, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2000
Driessens & Verstappen, Consortium, Amsterdam, Netherlands
To infinity and beyond, Exedra, Hilversum, Netherlands
1999
Un, deux, trois, soleil, Chapelle du Genêteil, Château-Gontier, France
Breed, Galerie für Landschaftskunst, Hamburg, Germany
1997
Driessens & Verstappen, Chapelle du Genêteil, Château-Gontier, France
1996
Driessens & Verstappen, gallery Le Sous Sol, Paris, France
1995
Erwin Driessens & Maria Verstappen, Optica, Montréal, Canada
The Factory, gallery O, Brussels, Belgium
1994
(Un)controlling, SMBA Stedelijk Museum Bureau, Amsterdam, Netherlands
presentation with Georgina Starr

GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022
Retro Future, Evoluon, Eindhoven, Netherlands
Mimesis, a living design, Centre Pompidou Metz, France
Gardening, Oud-Amelisweerd Estate, Bunnik, Netherlands
2020
To Mind is to Care, V2_Rotterdam, Netherlands
2019
The Coming World, Ecology as the New Politics 2030−2100, Museum Garage, Moscow
Illusionay Nature, Museum Sinclair Haus, Bad Homburg v/d Höhe, Germany
Neuhaus, HNI Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam
Perfection, Science Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
SEA Art Tour, church De Burght, Den Burg, Texel
Appear/Disappear, DordtYart, Dordrecht
2018
Robot Love, Campina Milk Factory, Eindhoven, Netherlands
Coding the World, Mutations/Créations #2, Centre Pompidou, National Museum of Modern Art, Paris
Machine Wilderness, Zone2Source, Het Glazen Huis, Amstelpark, Amsterdam
Rencontres Internationales, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris and Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin
2017
Langs de Waal, temporary art route with 10 site specific works, from 2017 to 2022, Nijmegen, Netherlands
Sticky Business, Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, Netherlands
Humans Need Not Apply, Science Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
2016
BAL!, former Royal Palace, Soestdijk, Netherlands
2015
Herbarium Vivum, Summer Program, Zone2Source, Amstelpark, Amsterdam, Netherlands
New Horizons, The Art Behind Games, Fries Museum, Leeuwarden, Netherlands
Out There, projections and photographs in the public space of Maastricht (Oktober 2014) and Rotterdam (Februar 2015), Netherlands
2014
Life-Worlds, Baroque Europe, Residence Gallery, DomQuartier, Salzburg, Austria
Curiorama, Verbeke Foundation, Kemzeke, Belgium
Lost in Transition, Metamorf biennial, Babel, Trondheim, Norway
2013
Art duo duo Art, exhibition with works of artists couples, Nieuw Dakota, Amsterdam, Netherlands
(Re)Source, 10th edition Beelden op de Berg, Belmonte Arboretum, Wageningen
Yes Naturally/Ja Natuurlijk, GEM Museum for Contemporary Art, Den Haag, Netherlands
2012
TASIE, 3rd International Art-Science Exhibition, China Science & Technology Museum, Bejing
The Power of Things, DEAF2012 Dutch Electronic Art Festival, Post, Rotterdam, Netherlands
2011
Pearls of the North, Palais d’Iéna, Paris – represented by gallery VOUS ETES ICI, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Dropstuff, part of the Collateral Events of the 54th Venice Biennial, Italia
2010
Alter Nature, Z33, Hasselt, Belgium
Process as Paradigm, Art in development, flux and change, LABoral, Gijón, Spain
2009
INSIDE, Cordoaria Nacional, Lisbon, Portugal
Nature as Artifice, New Dutch Landscape in Photography and Video Art, George Eastman House, Rochester NY/Aperture Gallery, New York, USA
2008
Nature as Artifice, New Dutch Landscape in Photography and Video Art, Neue Pinakothek, Munich, Germany/Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands
Deep Screen, Art in Digital Culture, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2007
BIOS 4, CAAC Andalusian Center of Contemporary Art, Seville, Spain
2006
Natural Habitat, NIMk Netherlands Media Art Institute, Amsterdam
L’esprit des Lieux, Domaine de Chamarande, Chamarande, France
UPDATE, the origin, Zebrastraat, Ghent, Belgium
2005
Pleinmuseum, mobile pavilion, seven cities in the Netherlands and Belgium
2004
Looping, Chapelle du Genêteil, Château-Gontier, France
Emerging Technologies, Siggraph 2004, Convention Centre, Los Angeles, USA
2003
About land, sea and faces, Present-day Dutch Video Art, Erasmushuis Djakarta, Indonesia
ROBOT, Eyebeam, New York, USA
2002
Selective Whole, Raid Projects, Los Angeles, USA
2000
Hard/Soft/Wet: Artificial Lives, Artspace Visual Arts centre, Sydney, Australia
Samenscholing, Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, Netherlands

TEACHING/LECTURES/WORKSHOPS
2022
Update, New Media Art FEstival, University Art Research Lab, Liepaja, Latvia (masterclasss)
MADtech, Minerva Academy, Groningen, Netherlands (guest teacher)
2021
Digital Art, ArtEZ, Arnhem, Netherlands (lecture)
2020
DesignLAB, Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam (lecture & coaching)
2018
Tickle Salon, an AI bodily experience in the making, Dutch Technology Week, Fontys, Eindhoven (lecture), review Petra Merkx
2017
Hacking Interactions, Lab Design Academy, Eindhoven (lecture)
2015
Bottom-up, TechnologyLab_, Breitner Academy, Amsterdam (lecture)
2013
DATA 52.0, Science Gallery, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland (lecture)
2011
Coin Workshop 2011, Ministry of Finance/Royal Dutch Mint/Rijksakademie, Amsterdam (coaching)
Ambacht/Craft, AKV St. Joost Academy of Fine Arts & Design, Den Bosch (lecture)
2010
White Lady Lecture Series, De Witte Dame, Design Academy, Eindhoven (lecture)
2009
Driessens & Verstappen, HKU School of Fine Arts, Utrecht (lecture & coaching)
2008
Art that breeds Art, research-group, ArtScience Faculty, KABK Royal Academy of Fine Arts, The Hague (teaching)
Monte Verità, Studium Generale, Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam (lecture)
Metacreation, Frank Mohr Institute, Groningen (since 2002 annual guest teaching)
2006
TU/e, Dept. of Industrial Design, University of Technology, Eindhoven (coaching)
2004
Natural Processes and Artificial Procedures, Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam (lecture)
2003
Creating the unforseen, the unthought and the unknown, Basque Country University, Bilbao, Spain (summercourse)
2002
The other way around, Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam (workshop)

AWARDS
2019
Innovation Application Award, GAAC Global AI Art Competition, Tsinghua University, Shanghai, China
2013
Witteveen+Bos Art+Technology Award, Deventer, Netherlands
2002
VIDA 5.0, Foundation Telefónica, Madrid, Spain
1st prize International competition on Art & Artificial Life
1999
VIDA 2.0, Foundation Telefónica, Madrid, Spain
1st prize International competition on Art & Artificial Life

SUMMER SPLASH 4, DAM Berlin, 23 June – 31 July 2018
CODE + POETRY, DAM Berlin, 8 April – 4 June 2016
DRKRM, DAM Berlin, 31 October 2015 – 16 January 2016
SUMMER SPLASH 3, DAM Berlin, 14 June – 2 August 2014
SOLID SPACES, DAM Frankfurt, 8 February – 29 March 2014