Sculptures for interior-, exterior- and public spaces
by Marjan Wouda


About the Artist
Born in 1960 on her family’s dairy farm in the North of Holland, Marjan Wouda came to England when she was 19, having finished secondary school “hungry for experience and independence”. Marjan worked for four years in a therapeutic community for emotionally disturbed adolescent boys in Wiltshire, where she realised that her greatest wish was to go to art college. She followed a Visual Arts Foundation Course at Manchester Polytechnic, followed by a Fine Art Degree Course - specialising in sculpture - at North East London Polytechnic, at the completion of which she was awarded a First Class Honours Degree. She was also selected for an internationally touring exhibition Germinations IV, which took her work to Marseille, Breda (Holland), London (Royal College of Art), and Bonn. In 1987 Marjan returned to Manchester to complete her formal art training with an MA Fine Art (Sculpture) Course and to marry Immy Deshmukh. 1989 Saw Marjan’s first commission of a large public sculpture for the town of Leigh, near Wigan and the birth of Faris, her first child, followed two years later by that of a second boy, who was named Ilyas. Marjan carried out a public sculpture commission for London Docklands Development Corporation of two bronze sculptures for a River Thames walkway, a wild boar chased by two hounds for a new town near Preston; a very large mole for a park near Newcastle upon Tyne - developed on the site of an old mine; and a life size knight on a horse for a new shopping centre at Ashton-Under-Lyne, near Manchester. A series of Marjan Wouda’s drawings were bought and commissioned for the new British Consulate in Hong Kong, and a further one was developed into an eight foot sculpture in mild steel for a cycle path near the city of Lancaster. Since 1996 Marjan has regularly exhibited in Amsterdam and in London; the latter mainly at Curwen Gallery in Fitzrovia. Marjan has contributed to two major touring exhibitions. The first, Chanticleer, an exhibition of prints and sculptures by Adrienne Craddock and Marjan Wouda, which was inspired by Chaucer’s The Nun’s Priest’s Tale, toured to 15 venues around the UK, Holland and Ireland. The second collaborative project, The Mare’s Tale, was initiated and co-ordinated by the artist, and comprises prints, sculptures, drawings, paintings and animation inspired by traditional nursery rhymes from around the world. Launched in 2000, it is currently on its tour of 13 municipal venues around the UK. In 2000 Marjan moved with her family to Darwen in the Pennines of East Lancashire. The oldest house in town, which she occupied with her family, affords her studio space in the outbuildings. Here she set to work on her 2nd and 3rd large scale commissioned bronze sculpture for publisher Felix Dennis, the latter of which turning out to be the first public sculpture on the Caribbean Island Mystique, featuring two gigantic tortoises caught in the act of mating. The year 2002 found Marjan working as sculptor in residence in a Lancashire park creating animals out of recycled materials and marked the birth of her daughter Alisha. Since then there have been more commissions of large scale pieces for Felix Dennis’ Garden of heroes, sculptures commissioned by secondary schools and a growing fascination with monkeys and with proverbs from around the world (see Wagging Tongues Exhibition currently touring the UK). Marjan Wouda’s work has been reviewed in The Sunday Times Magazine (New London, April ’99, Life Forms by Ria Higgins), The Independant; (EYE ON TUESDAY , 23 December 1997, Collect Call by John Windsor), and in the Artist’s and Illustrator’s Magazine (January 2001, by Laura Gascoigne). Her work also featured on The Arts and Antiques Hour, BBC 2, in 1998.

Sculptures for interior-, exterior- and public spacesby Marjan Wouda

Sculptures for interior-, exterior- and public spaces
by Marjan Wouda