Artist spotlight

Peter van Ardenne's Assembled Worlds

20 July 2026

Peter van Ardenne has spent decades exploring how we make and preserve things. Born in Indonesia, he worked across theatre, antiquities, and design criticism before turning to art-making in 2005. His assemblages bring together disparate objects—materials salvaged and collected—to create small, intimate worlds. There's wit in these pieces, and an eye for unexpected combinations. Van Ardenne approaches each work with the curiosity of someone who has spent a lifetime studying craft and design, seeing possibility in what others might overlook. Based in De Bilt, he continues to build these singular, mysterious compositions that invite us to look closely and imagine.