‘My skirt that became the roof of a tent’

This work by Marijke Lambregtse is inspired by a line in the very touching and emotional poem by Ni’ma Hassan, poet. Marijke’s work speaks about transformation, resilience, and the sheltering power of womanhood. ‘My skirt that became the roof of a tent’ is both literal and symbolic — of making home out of nothing, a need for protection and of turning fragility into strength. It reflects on how women across the world, in times of displacement and hardship, carry the weight of survival with grace and creativity — transforming what they have into what is most needed.
Symbols like the watermelon and birds hold deep meaning in Marijke’s latest series. The watermelon, a symbol of Palestinian identity and resistance, stands for renewal, place and hope — its red, green, black, and white echoing the colours of their flag and a people’s endurance. The birds represent freedom — the longing to rise above walls and borders, the human spirit released. The hand stitching is an important symbolic way of showing how long and slow if any progress in the peace process has been made in these years of devastation.
When Marijke began this painting, Christmas wasn’t on her mind, but now that it’s complete, the colours carry an added sense of peace as well.
Ready to hang, signed on the back, comes with a certificate of authenticity
25% of profits will go to @doctorswithoutborders to support the Palestinian people

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‘A work is born from a kind of confused emotion. The work is an attempt to elucidate that emotion.’ Puvis de Chavannes

‘An abstract language that reveals references to an aesthetic figuration with a surreal flavour. This is the art of Marijke Lambregtse, an Australian based contemporary artist of Dutch origin, who focuses her artistic research on the relationship between man and the world, in its most hidden aspects. Her paintings are often characterized by the presence of human-like figures, whose facial features vanish overwhelmed by fields of colour, annihilating gestural communication and leaving the latter in complete control of emotions.

An alternation of more gestural brushstrokes and more detailed and sharply described elements, give the work a pleasant dynamism. Looking at Marijke Lambregtse's paintings, we feel out of place, in awe, as if we have crossed the threshold into another world and we are suddenly strangers. (Francesca Brunello)

Her recent abstract figurative works arise from a growing eco-anxiety and a critical concern for the state of the world today. Shaped by direct encounters with climate change, pollution, displacement, and environmental injustice, the work responds to systems that prioritise profit, control, and exploitation over care and coexistence. She seeks to harmoniously merge message and aesthetics, using emotionally charged strikingly colorful, acrylic paint, recycled materials, text, and texture to confront viewers with both beauty and unease.

A professional dancer, teacher and choreographer before crossing over to studying visual art and gaining a BVA majoring in sculpture at Griffith University in Brisbane she was awarded the Karl and Gertrude Langer Award which resulted in a solo exhibition at the Brisbane Town Hall gallery.

Since then she has been exhibiting regularly with several solo exhibitions, being a finalist in numerous art awards and has been widely collected in Australia and overseas.

Brunswick Street Gallery Small Works Art Prize 2026
Lethbridge 2025 Small Scale Art Prize salon finalist
Finalist Abstraction Exhibition Petrie Terrace Gallery 2025/2024
Finalist in Lethbridge 2024/2023 Small Scale Art Awards Salon de Refusés
Finalist in the Brisbane Rotary Art Show 2024/2023
Finalist in the Brisbane Portrait Prize Salon des Refugees 2022
Finalist in the RQAS annual Exhibition 2023
Finalist in the Amore exhibition at Artprenr Gallery 2023
Finalist in the Queensland Figurative 2022
Finalist in the Lethbridge 20000 Small Scale Art Award in 2022, 21, 20 and 2019
Awarded the Power of Creativity Art Prize by Contemporary Curator Art Magazine in 2021
Highly Commended in the Abstraction Exhibition Royal Queensland Art Society 2021
Finalist in the Rotary Spectacular Brisbane in 2019 and 2018