Bouke de Vries (b. 1960) is from Utrecht, The Netherlands. He Design at the Design Academy Eindhoven and Textiles at the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London. After working with fashion icons John Galliano, Stephen Jones and Zandra Rhodes, de Vries decided to return to education to study ceramics conservation and restoration, becoming one of London's leading ceramic conservators. This led to his current artistic practice of creating – and deconstructing – intricate sculptures from fragments of broken pottery and porcelain, instilling them with new values and new narratives.
Solo exhibitions include: War and Pieces, Hillwood House, Washington, USA (2019); Nieuw Amsterdams Peil, Ron Mandos Gallery, Amsterdan, The Netherland (2018); Sometimes I look East and sometimes I look West, Officina Saffi, Milan (2018); UN-Damaged, Musea Dal Ceramica Mondovi, Mondovi, Italy (2017); Fractured Images, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London (2017); Studying human activity through the recovery of material culture, Galerie Ron Mandos, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2016); War and Pieces, Gemeente Museum The Hague, Netherland (2016); Fragments, Château de Nyon, Musée historique et des porcelaines, Nyon (2014); and Threads of My Life, Gloria Maria Gallery, Milan (2014).
Group exhibitions include a show All the Days and Nights, Kristin Hjellegjder Gallery, London (2020); (upcoming) Group Exhibition, Witte the With Rothertham, The Netherlands (2020); (upcoming) Material Earth- Beyond the Vessel, Messums Wiltshire, UK (2020); Beyond the Vessel, Mesher Gallery Istanbul, Turkey (2019); A Tea Journey, Compton Verney, UK (2019); Derived from the Decorative, Cheekwood Estate Nashville, Tennesee, USA (2019); War and Pieces, Museum of Fine Art, Montgomery, Alabama, USA (2019); The Precious Clay, Museum of Royal Worcester, Worcester, UK (2019); Taiwan Ceramics Biennale, Yingge, Taiwan (2018/19); Glitch, Kuntsi Museum, Vaasa Finland (2018/19); War And Pieces, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hertford, Ct, USA (2018/19);Vasa Vasorum, Peters Projects, Santa Fe, NM, USA (2018); and Material Earths II, Myths, Materials and Metamorphosis, Messums Wiltshire, USA (2018). Other shows include a show at the Gemeente Museum, den Haag, for which he reconstructed his installation entitled War and Pieces (2015). Originally conceived for the Holburne Museum in Bath, the installation has now been shown in nine venues and next year will go on a three year tour of the United States. De Bries work is in numerous collections such as Aberdeen Art Gallery; The Ariana, Geneva, Switzerland; Caldic collection, Netherlands; Castle Hingene, Belgium; Collection Edgar J. and Clarissa Bronfman, London; Collection Hugo Brown, The Netherlands; Collection Elton John, London/Los Angeles; Collection Taiq Al Jaidah; Collection Kay Saatchi, Los Angeles; Collection Frances Reynolds, London; Collection Mizuho Bank London; Drake collection, The Netherlands; Le Chateau de Nyon, Nyon, Switzerland; MIMA, Middlesbrough; MONA, Tasmania; MUDAC, Lausanne,Switzerland; Ministry of foreign affairs Netherlands; Pallant House Gallery; Peabody Essex Museum, Salem Philadelphia Museum; National Dutch ceramic museum Princessenhof, Leeuwarden Netherlands; York City Art Gallery; Zabludowicz Collection, London. De Vries lives and works in London.