HARMKE DATEMA CHANG
BIO + CV
Biography
Biography
Harmke Datema-Chang makes work that operates inside the systems it questions — economic, institutional, and social. At the heart of her practice is a central tension: what gets to survive, and who decides.
Born and raised in the Netherlands with Chinese roots, she works across large-scale installation, permanent sculpture, painting, and durational performance. Her projects unfold over years, across borders, and through genuine collaboration with artists, institutions, and communities internationally.
She is the artist and author of BUY OR BURN (2019–ongoing), a durational artwork in which unsold works are publicly auctioned — and if unbought, destroyed. The audience becomes the deciding force. The stakes are real.
Her studio practice moves in the opposite direction: creation as preservation, as an insistence on what must be made, held, and carried forward. Destruction and making are two sides of the same inquiry into value, responsibility, and agency.
Alongside her artistic practice, Datema-Chang founded the Dutch branch of NoEsUnaGalería, an international community of artists dedicated to rethinking how artistic value is made, shared, and challenged.
Education
2016 – 2018
Master of Education in Arts
Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten, Amsterdam
2002 – 2006
Bachelor of Illustration and Design
HKU Hogeschool voor de Kunsten, Utrecht
1997 – 2001
Visualisation
Grafisch Lyceum Utrecht
Art in Public Space
2023
Captivating Further Dimensions — Voorhout Monumentaal, Den Haag, Pulchri Studio
2020 – 2022
A New History — Almere Poort (in collaboration with Tropenmuseum & BonteHond)
2019 – 2021
Captivating an Invisible Life — Fioretti College, Lisse
2015 – 2016
When the Tree Keeps His Wings — Woudrichem
2012 – 2013
Stepping Stones & Frozen Fountain — Bornsche Beekpark, Borne
2010
The Underground Garden — GVB Amsterdam
2009
The Floating Garden — Stadsdeel Slotervaart, Amsterdam
Exhibitions (Selection)
2025
Relics of the Future — Brutus, Rotterdam
Buy or Burn — auction
2023
Stranger Than Fiction (solo) — Pulchri Studio, Den Haag
ODISSI online launch exhibition — Mexico City
Voorhout Monumentaal — Den Haag
Bluprnt Show — BridgeRed Studios, Miami
2022
Buy or Burn — 7seasmotel, Miami
Casa Frissac — Mexico City
365daysafter — online, curated by Mokonshu
Monolito — Mexico City
2021
Casa10 — San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
Buy or Burn — Utrecht & Miami (curator and participant)
Uncloud Festival — Utrecht
Extuin — Utrecht
Love, Sleep, Repeat — Utrecht
OOPS WE DID IT AGAIN — Mexico City
2020 – 2019
Dutch Dragon — Mexico City
EXPOHAL — De Nijverheid, Utrecht
KADEBOOT — De Nijverheid, Utrecht
STUDIO — De Nijverheid, Utrecht
Under Kunstruction — NDSM, Amsterdam
Resiliencia — Mexico City
Intens Mexico! — Cobra Museum, Amstelveen
Por Aqui — NDSM, Amsterdam
Feria Nacional — Tequisquiapan, Mexico
Residencies
2018
Art House Holland, Leiderdorp
Collections
Centraal Museum, Utrecht — Beeldbox animation installation
Collection of Joep van Lieshout
Various private collections, Mexico City and Miami
Memberships
Pulchri Studio, Den Haag (since 2022)
NoEsUnaGalería, Mexico City & Utrecht (since 2019)
Grants & Commissions
Cultural Participation Fund — A New History, Almere
Cultural Fund Almere — A New History, Almere
HLT Work Organisation & Municipality of Lisse — Captivating an Invisible Life
Municipality of Woudrichem — When the Tree Keeps His Wings