Claudy Jongstra is renowned worldwide for her textile artworks and architectural installations that draw from her multifaceted approach, uniting artistry and ecological stewardship in a profound and enduring artist-activist vision.
Claudy Jongstra is renowned worldwide for her textile artworks and architectural installations that draw from her multifaceted approach, uniting artistry and ecological stewardship in a profound and enduring artist-activist vision.
Since establishing her atelier in 2001, artist-activist Claudy Jongstra has redefined the ancient techniques of wool felting and plant-based dyeing, seamlessly integrating ecological consciousness into the powerful, lyrical compositions she creates for diverse cultural, academic, corporate, public, and residential spaces across the globe.
Studio Claudy Jongstra works collaboratively with leading architects, designers, and institutions on prestigious projects, including the U.S. Embassy in The Hague, University of Pennsylvania Van Pelt-Dietrich Library, The Barnes Foundation, Mingei International Museum, Museum De Lakenhal, International Theater Amsterdam (ITA), and Lincoln Center David Rubenstein Atrium.
Claudy Jongstra’s artworks are featured in private, corporate, and international art museum collections.
A graduate of the HKU College of Art in Utrecht, Claudy Jongstra began her career in fashion. Concerned about the impacts of an industry she had come to see as harmful to the planet, Jongstra began to channel her creative energies into developing her artistic practice to integrate and honour the whole life cycle of the wool and plant-based colours in her artworks.
Particularly inspired by a nomadic yurt she encountered in an exhibition at the TextielMuseum in Tilburg, Jongstra has worked with wool since 1994. Jongstra’s early wool works inspired successful collaborations with John Galliano, Hermès, and Christian Lacroix, and appeared in the Star Wars franchise as the iconic long-coats of the Jedi warriors.
Jongstra began creating wall-sized artworks for international architectural commissions and raising a flock of Drenthe Heath sheep in 2001, when she moved her Amsterdam atelier to the countryside of Friesland, The Netherlands, to establish Studio Claudy Jongstra. In 2008, Jongstra received the Cultuurfonds Award for Applied Arts and Architecture, which she used to plant a biodynamic dyer's collection garden beside her natural dye lab. The garden is now home to some of the most mature existing historical dye plants in Europe - including Rubia tinctoria (madder), which is included in the collection of the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands.
With ecological justice at the centre of her artistic practice, Claudy Jongstra has created several self-initiated, large-scale artworks that have been exhibited internationally as visual manifestoes calling for action, including Woven Skin (2018), Guernica de la Ecología (2022), and the Tangible Transformation series (2023-2024).
“You cannot truly understand nature without becoming part of it. You must connect, sensing the passage of time, and the seasons. Learn to smell the ripeness of bark, and after a while, you will know when it is ready to be used. Listen to the birds and you can hear what weather is coming. You have to be connected – completely present. How do you explain that in words?”
Claudy Jongstra