Barbara Boekelman (b. Amsterdam, Netherlands) is a painter based in Ōtautahi Christchurch, New Zealand.
She studied at the School of Fine Arts at Utrecht University of the Arts (HKU), The Netherlands, from 1991 to 1993, before completing studies in French Language and Literature at the University of Amsterdam and Hogeschool van Amsterdam. From 1994 to 1998, she studied Journalism and Communication at the University of Applied Sciences in Utrecht. She subsequently worked in broadcasting for more than two decades while continuing to develop her artistic practice.
Returning to painting full-time, Boekelman completed a BFA Honours at the School of Fine Arts, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, in 2020, followed by a Master of Fine Arts in 2022.
Working primarily on large-scale paintings, Boekelman has exhibited in New Zealand, the Netherlands and Germany. Her exhibitions include presentations at PG Gallery 192 in Christchurch and Luisa Catucci Gallery in Berlin, as well as the BBA Artist Prize 2024 at Kühlhaus Berlin, where she was a finalist and prize recipient.
Barbara Boekelman (b. Amsterdam, Netherlands) is a painter based in Ōtautahi Christchurch, New Zealand.
She studied at the School of Fine Arts at Utrecht University of the Arts (HKU), The Netherlands, from 1991 to 1993, before completing studies in French Language and Literature at the University of Amsterdam and Hogeschool van Amsterdam. From 1994 to 1998, she studied Journalism and Communication at the University of Applied Sciences in Utrecht. She subsequently worked in broadcasting for more than two decades while continuing to develop her artistic practice.
Returning to painting full-time, Boekelman completed a BFA Honours at the School of Fine Arts, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, in 2020, followed by a Master of Fine Arts in 2022.
Working primarily on large-scale paintings, Boekelman has exhibited in New Zealand, the Netherlands and Germany. Her exhibitions include presentations at PG Gallery 192 in Christchurch and Luisa Catucci Gallery in Berlin, as well as the BBA Artist Prize 2024 at Kühlhaus Berlin, where she was a finalist and prize recipient.
Barbara Boekelman works on a large scale, creating complex pictorial environments in which fragments of figures, gestures and forms emerge from fields of colour. What initially appears abstract gradually reveals traces of representation, inviting the viewer to move between immediate visual impact and sustained observation.
Her paintings are built through an accumulative process. Boekelman repeatedly adds, removes and alters the surface, leaving traces of earlier decisions within the final image. Marks are covered but rarely erased completely; fragments remain embedded beneath subsequent layers. The resulting surfaces suggest a continuous process of construction and revision, in which the history of the painting remains materially present. Pastel tones are set against saturated hues, darker passages and charcoal-like marks, producing shifts between softness and intensity. Pink recurs throughout the work, sometimes functioning as a quiet connective element and elsewhere becoming sharper and more charged. These relationships give the paintings their particular visual rhythm, balancing delicacy with force.
The subjects behind the paintings often arise from contemporary social and human concerns, including inequality, power, sexuality, religion, animal cruelty and the contradictions of behaviour. Rather than illustrating these subjects directly, Boekelman allows them to inform the atmosphere and structure of the work. The narrative remains beneath the surface, giving the paintings a conceptual dimension without determining a single interpretation. Titles provide another point of entry. Chosen before the painting begins, they establish a conceptual direction while deliberately avoiding explanation. They connect the visible image to an idea or question, but leave sufficient distance for the viewer to construct their own reading.
At the core of Boekelman’s practice is a continual movement towards abstraction. Representation provides an initial foothold, but is progressively disrupted as forms are fragmented, buried and absorbed into the larger structure of the painting. Abstraction is therefore not an abandonment of the image, but a means of extending it beyond recognition. Colour becomes the principal agent in this transformation: it carries emotion, creates spatial relationships and determines the pace through which the eye moves across the surface. Vivid and muted passages, warmth and abrasion, density and openness coexist within the same composition. Through this interplay, Boekelman allows colour and abstraction to become both the subject and the language of the painting.
ARTWORKS HIGHLIGHTS
INSTALLATION VIEWS
Exhibition Title: La Vie En Rose
Artists: Maike Freess, Barbara Boekelman, Clara Tournay, Mana Urakami
Location: Luisa Catucci Contemporary, Brunnenstr 170, 10119 Berlin
Curator: Luisa Catucci, Mario Bermel
March 13th – Apr 25th, 2026
Exhibition Title: A Psalm for the wild built
Artists: Marion Mandeng, Barbara Boekelman, Eleonora Roaro, Cathy Jord
Location: Luisa Catucci Contemporary, Brunnenstr 170, 10119 Berlin
Curator: Luisa Catucci
June 20th – Aug 30th, 2026
SELECTED EXHIBTIONS
Her exhibitions include La Vie En Rose, Luisa Catucci Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2026); So to Speak, PG Gallery 192, Christchurch, New Zealand (2025); A Psalm for the Wild Built, Luisa Catucci Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2024); BBA Artist Prize 2024, Kühlhaus Berlin, Berlin, Germany (2024); Autumn Harvest, PG Gallery 192, Christchurch, New Zealand (2024); Non-fiction (continued), PG Gallery 192, Christchurch, New Zealand (2023); Be More Bold, Lala Lifestyle Exhibition Space, Christchurch, New Zealand, with Philip Trusttum (2023); Murray & Co Exhibition, Murray & Co Exhibition Space, Christchurch, New Zealand (2022); Re-surface, Ilam Campus Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand (2021); MK24, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2015); De Centrale, Arnhem, The Netherlands (1990); and De Bonte Koe, Venray, The Netherlands (1988).