about

Born in the Netherlands, Tisna Westerhof studied Printmaking at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and has an MA in Scenography from Central St Martins, London.  She is co-founder and director of hARTslane Gallery (2012), an experimental art project space in New Cross Gate, South London. Tisna Westerhof is known for her Delft Blue political works and large-scale embroidered portraits of young male and female subjects. While her practice is grounded in printmaking, she revels in breaking down the limitations of materials and reinventing traditional handicrafts, a powerful, personal, political and poetic tool. Interested in people engaged in a project of self-transformation and motivated by the function of art education in society, Tisna uses her voice in ceramics, textiles, installation, painting and printmaking as well as organising, curating and collaborating with others. All are interconnected and attempt to give voice to the underrepresented and to dream a better world, free of social injustices and intolerance. She currently lives and works between London & Amsterdam, she’s a member of The London Group and has exhibited among others at the Venice Biennale, Royal Academy London, The Dutch Centre London, Whitechapel Gallery, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.

Selected exhibitions

2025

Here, Waterloo Festival

Women Life Freedom, London & Este, Italy

Invisible Visible, London

2024

The Open Door at hARTslane, London
Drop it, BCMA gallery, Berlin
The Open Door, retrospective exhibition at Lieu d’Art Contemporain, France, supported by ACE
Isle of Wight, 111 Not Out

2023

The London Group Open at The Copeland Gallery

2022

The London Goup’s major exhibition at Bankside Gallery, exhibiting alongside other members Arthur Wilson, Dame Paula Rego and Frank Bowling
Catch Your Breath, St John’s Churchyard & Morley Gallery, London
Come Dine in Blue, A year long participatory art project, exhibition, publication and short film, funded by ACE, The Heritsge Fund, Lewisham Council, London

2021

Imperfectum at the Cello Factory, Waterloo, London, curated by Vanya Balogh, featuring 24 international artists, comprising works from different periods and stages of their careers where the artists embraced the unresolved and open-ended

2020

CRAFT-ACE supported exhibition exploring the past and present of craft-based Contemporary Art, Thought Foundation Gallery, Birtley, UK

In To The Dark, Cello Factory, Waterloo, London
Dutch Centre, London (solo)
Shoreham Sculpture Trail, in Shoreham Kent, with 80 plus leading sculptors, including Richard Wilson RA, David Mach RA and Frank Bowling OBE GlRA LG
Opium Gallery, Opium residency, Media Park, Hilversum, NL

2019

London Group Open, Cello Factory, London
100%Female, curated by Global Village Artist Network, an exhibition of 100 international female artists, Stichting White Cube at the Grote St Lauren’s Kerk, Alkmaar, NL
RA Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London
Miniscule, 58th Biennale d’Arte Contemporanea, Giardini, Venice
Empire II, Void,  58th La Biennale di Venezia,
Miniscule, Cross Lane Projects, Kendal, Cumbria, UK
Drawing Distinctions, Cello Factory, London
Empire II, After Extinction, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Oaxaca, Mexico
Love, Story, Family: Intimate Tales In Art, hARTslane, London
In The Dark’-Point Of View, Cello Factory, London

2018

Drawing Distinctions, Furlong Gallery, Menomonie, USA
Paper Scissors Stone, The Auction Collective, Alon Zakaim Fine Art, London
Protocol, Q-Park, Cavendish Square, Curated by Vanya Balogh
250th RA Summer Exhibition, Royal College of Arts, London
Nothing Endures But Change, Waterloo Festival, London
Tallinn Arts Week, Haus Gallery, Estonia
The Age of Anxiety, Empire II, Madrid
Exhibiting the Moving Image, Empire II, Le100Ecs-artist centre, Paris
Auto-Destruct, Unit 1 Gallery, London
Embracing The Underdog, China Town Q-Park, London
Conversations With Art, APT Gallery, London
Vroom,
Delft Delicacy & Motherhood, Experiments in news and art with Jude Cowan Montague, News Agents, Radio Resonance FM

2017

ASC The Chaplin Centre, London
Kunst 10daagse Bergen, NL (solo)
Page 3, London Group open, Cello Factory, London
Corridor, curated by Cedric Christie and Pascal Rousson, Red Post Café, London
ABC @ Crash, Cavendish Square, Freeze Collateral Contemporary Art Fair, London
Dandelion Visions, Blakefest, Bognor Regis Library, UK
Dirty Laundry, Shoreham Sculpture Trail, UK
Under Water Love, Empre II, 57th Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
Personal Relations, Mirror Gallery, Vicenza, Italy
51%RememberHer, Tower Gallery, Plaistow, UK
Personal Relations, Pulchri, The Hague, NL

2016

Europa, Transition Gallery, London
Personal Relations, The Cello Factory, London
Personal Relations, Mirror Gallery, Vicenza, Italy
Digest, The Dutch Centre, London (solo)
Apartment, The Nunnery Gallery, Bow Arts, London
Silent Movies, Q-park, Cavendish Square, London

2015

Venice Pavilion, hARTslane, London
Fit The Slit, Venice Biennale, Alberoni Beach Lido, Venice
Deptford Stories Festival, Anthology Foundry, London
Blue Sky, Lingham University, Hong Kong

2014

LABF, Whitechapel Gallery, London
The Masks We Wear, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London
Chinese Whispers, Karin Janssen Project Space, London
Chinese Whispers, Galerie Nasty, Eindhoven, NL

2013

The London Group Centenary, London
Greekside Open, selected by Paul Noble, London
‘400 Women’, Suikerfabriek, Amsterdam, NL
Art & Protest, Daniel Libeskind Space, London
The Surgery, Nunhead, London
United, hARTslane, London
On The Flipside, DeptfordX festival, CueB Gallery, London (solo)

2012

400 Women, with Tamsyn Challenger, Shoreditch Town Hall, London
Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London
Galerie Clement, Amsterdam, NL (solo)

2011

Ernst&Young, The Hague, NL (solo)
Edinburgh Art Festival, Edinburgh

2010

Plagiarise, The Bussy Building, London
John Bloxam Gallery, (Dark Theatre) London
SBK Art Centre, Haarlem, NL (solo)

2009

Aan/Uit, Gallery Joghem, Sanquin, Amsterdam, NL (solo)
Tegenzin, Pioneer Centre, London (solo)
Prenelle Gallery, London (solo)
I think I am, Zurich University of the Arts & Museum fur Gestalltung, Zurich
Evertshuis, Bodegraven, NL (solo)
Galerie Luca, Zaltbommel, NL (solo)
Museum Hillesluis, Rotterdam, NL
Academisch Medisch Centrum, Amsterdam (solo)
‘Debut’ Pulchri, The Hague, Holland
Burgemeister Muller Museum, Byern, Germany
‘Printmaking Today’ Gallery Higashimatsuyama, Tokyo, Japan
Kunst RAI, Amsterdam

Membership

The London Group, Elected 2013
Committee Member of The London Group, Elected 2015

Awards

The London Group, Elected 2013
Committee Member of The London Group, Elected 2015

Public/Private Collections

The Royal Dutch Printmaking Award
Siemens Art Award
Ernst & Young EY Art Award
CLB Art Prize
Mayor of London Culture Seeds Award

Curatorial Projects

 Co-founded hARTslane, an experimental Art Project Space and curatorial team in New Cross Gate, South London (2012)
hARTslane’s curatorial exhibitions & projects:
‘The 100 Wishes of Hatchem’ (funded by The Mayor of London Culture Seeds)
‘East-Ost-Oost’
‘Bags of Love’ (funded by The Lottery Fund)
‘Room 6.0’
‘Greetings From New Cross Gate’ (funded by the Lottery Fund)
‘The Venice Pavillion In London’
‘Sky In A Room’
‘Patch up’
‘Let Me Go To The Window’
‘Otherworldly’
Co-curated various (inter)national exhibitions:
*Deptford Stories-Art Festival’ – Anthology Deptford Foundry, Produced by Greenspace, London (2014)
*Silent Movies, produced by Vanya Bologh & Cedric Christie: Silent Movies, Q-park, Cavendish Square, London  (2015)
*Personal Relations’-An international travelling miniature-portrait exhibition, London, The Hague, Berlin, Vicenza  (2016/17)
Teaching / Mentoring / Facilitating Creative Workshops
*Room 6.0,  Facilitating an on-going mentoring programme for professional artistic development,  hARTslane, London (2012- present)
*’Bags Of Love’, produced and facilitated a series of creative workshops for primary school children, working with various local charities, homeless people, Alzheimer’s care homes, Syrian refugee families and children on the autistic spectrum
*Jury/ Selector for The London Group Open Exhibitions  (2015/16/17)                         
*Room 6.0,  Facilitating an on-going mentoring programme for professional artistic development,  hARTslane, London (2012- present)
*Directing and facilitating textile workshops with Childeric Primary School, Deptford, creating a 28 meter long community quilt for ‘Deptford Stories Festival’, London (2014)       
*Directing and facilitating ‘Patch Up’, quilt making & textile workshops with 3 primary schools in Lewisham, London, celebrating unity&diversity (2013)
*one-to-one art tuition from studio, local (SEN)children , London (ongoing)