Interview
In conversation with Marilyn Sonneveld: on Painting Memory, Emotion, and Intimacy.
Amsterdam-based artist Marilyn Sonneveld works across painting and glass to explore themes of memory and emotion through layered, atmospheric compositions. Here, the artist shares her process, influences, and how she uses color and material to translate everyday moments into intimate, reflective works.
INTERVIEW
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your work?
My name is Marilyn Sonneveld. I am a multidisciplinary artist based in Amsterdam, working primarily with painting and glass. My practice centers around themes that are personal but also universal, such as motherhood, childhood memories, or family rituals. These moments often come from everyday life but carry an emotional weight that many people can relate to. I am interested in how experiences like raising a child or spending time with family become infused with memory, longing, and quiet transformation. My work seeks to capture these inner states and give them visual form, often in a way that feels suspended between clarity and softness.
Can you walk us through your creative process? What steps do you typically take from idea to finished piece?
My process begins with a blank canvas and a very light underlayer of paint. The initial color is not important, but it sets a tone for what comes next. I sketch a scene or figure, and then begin layering translucent oil paints over it. These layers slowly blur or erase the original sketch, allowing the emotion or atmosphere to become the central focus rather than the subject itself. I often do not know where the painting will end up. I work very intuitively, and I spend as much time looking at the painting as I do painting it. This back-and-forth is essential. It is not about executing a fixed idea but letting the painting reveal itself to me over time.
Who or what are your main influences? Are there specific artists or movements that inspire or guide your work?
I draw inspiration from many sources, both personal and cultural. A lot of it comes from the women in my life, especially mothers, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers. Their stories and experiences continue to influence how I think about care, emotion, and legacy. Music is also a big part of my studio environment. I listen to artists like Isao Tomita or Kelela, music that helps me tune into a more emotional, subconscious state while working. In terms of visual influences, I am constantly drawn to the way light is used in Old Master paintings. I also look to surrealism for its ability to introduce a subtle sense of disorientation, where things feel familiar but slightly off. That tension is something I try to explore in my own work as well.
Can you tell us about your use of color? How do they relate to the theme of your work, and what do you hope it conveys to the viewer?
Color plays a central role in how I build atmosphere and emotional intensity. I use very thin layers of oil paint, which gives the work a transparent, almost glowing effect. This layering process allows me to create a sense of depth where the figures feel hidden or embraced by their surroundings. Sometimes the final image reminds me of weather maps or thermal sensors, where areas of emotional heat rise to the surface. I never decide on a color palette in advance. Like the figures and forms, the colors appear intuitively. The paint often surprises me and leads the way. This intuitive approach is also why I enjoy working with glass. It shares that same quality of being both delicate and unpredictable, constantly shifting depending on how light passes through it.
More about Marilyn Sonneveld :
Marilyn Sonneveld, born in 1990 in the Netherlands, is an interdisciplinary visual artist who graduated from the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam. She currently lives and works in Amsterdam. Her artistic practice spans various materials, techniques, and scales, including large-scale oil paintings, glass sculptures, panels, and installations. Through a dynamic interplay of color and form, her work explores intimate narratives that address themes of the body, self-acceptance, vulnerability, and sexuality.
In 2023, for her first institutional exhibition, When the Sun Comes Up, at Kunsthal Rotterdam, Sonneveld began exploring the transformation of her own physicality in anticipation of motherhood. This led to a new series where she moved further into abstraction. Her oil and glass paintings blend colors to create atmospheric compositions, moving away from the defined lines and strokes of her earlier works. They evoke a sense of temperature, pressure, and humidity, resembling weather maps. Within these abstracted landscapes, glimpses of intimate scenes emerge, like distant memories leaving only traces and shadows.
In 2024, Sonneveld was nominated for the Royal Award for Modern Painting. Her first institutional solo exhibition took place at Kunsthal Rotterdam in 2023. Her recent exhibitions include De Nieuwelingen at Van Eesteren Museum, Heat Wave at No Man’s Art Gallery, Untitled Miami with Badr el Jundi, No Man’s Art Popup Gallery in Mexico City, Natch at PADA in Lisbon, High Tide at Het HEM in Zaandam, Selected Emerging Artist in a solo show at Unfair Amsterdam, Mama Cash Feminist at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, and Everything is Better When I’m With Me at No Man’s Art Gallery in Amsterdam.
Her work is part of public and private collections, including De Rijksoverheid Collection, Nederlandsche Bank, ABN Amro Bank, and YCC Club in the Netherlands.
Marilyn Sonneveld's solo exhibition, Reverie, is on view at EDJI Gallery until May 31. You can also see her work at the Rooms art and design fair at Mix Hotel in Brussels from 22.05 to 26.05.
REVERIE
Discover Marilyn Sonneveld's solo exhibition at EDJI Gallery.