Doina Kraal (1980, NL) is an Amsterdam based artist. She studied Fine Art (voorheen audio visueel) at Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam (BA) and at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London (MA). From 2020 - 2022 Doina was a PhD candidate at PhDArts, a practice-lead doctoral study programme at ACPA (Academy of Creative and Performing Arts) Leiden University and KABK The Hague. Through her multimedia installations and performances, she investigates how an intimate, sensory and enchanting encounter can be established between the triangle observer, performer and artistic object.
Since 2022 Doina works as an artist duo with Roger Cremers. They share a deep appreciation for stories and objects with a history. Their work reactivates the sensory experience that lies dormant in archives, collections and even old music and translates that experience into multi-sensory installations.
Doina’s projects find their origins in the installation ['In de Rarekiek'] (2011-2012), a life-size peepshow box conceived as a translation of the macrocosm in the form of a microcosm and inspired by the historical rarekiek or peep-show. In 2013, the Gieskes-Strijbis Fund and Foam, photography museum Amsterdam awarded Kraal the Foam 3h award, in relation to ['In de Rarekiek']. This resulted in the traveling installation and performance ['Touche-à-Tout'] (2014-ongoing). A collection of writings, images, and documentation was developed concurrently around this key work in the extensive artists' book ['Touche-a-Tout: some frames to the wonder of the world, featuring some of the wonders of the world'], Onomatopee (2018) and on the website www.touche-a-tout.nl These two installations form the root of a growing, ambiguous and multi-sensory archive. Kraal keeps adding to this archive or draws on it for new installations and performances.
Her work has been presented in numerous solo and group exhibitions including Foam, Looiersgracht 60, Amsterdam, Marres, Maastricht, the Netherlands; National Gallery, Mumbai, India; Flora Ars+Natura, Bogotá, Colombia; Galeria Vermelho, São Paulo, Brazil.
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Contact: doina.kraal@gmail.com