Cindy Sprokel
Exhibition Humanoids
13-06-2026 -31-08-2026
De Drie, 2024, 30x15x15 cm.
Sway Back, 2025, 14x11x33 cm.
Faun, 2025, 13x14x20 cm.
So What 2025, 7,5x14x37 cm.
Ladybird, 2025, 14x11x33 cm.
Cindy Sprokel – Humanoids
In the opening exhibition Humanoids, Cindy Sprokel presents hybrid figures that at first appear familiar, yet become increasingly unsettling upon closer inspection. Human bodies merge with carefully preserved bird remains—skulls, wings, and legs—giving rise to beings that are at once graceful and disquieting.
Sprokel brings together the intimate and the uncanny, the fragile and the monumental. Her figures seem suspended in a moment of transformation: neither entirely human nor entirely animal, but something in between. They exude a melancholic tenderness while retaining something wild and elusive. By working with remnants from nature that would otherwise be lost, she creates new beings that resonate both as echoes of mythical narratives and as reflections on our contemporary relationship with the living world.
The works exist on the threshold of the recognisable. They invite a double act of looking: on the one hand, a sense of wonder and intimacy; on the other, a subtle feeling of estrangement. It is as though we catch a glimpse of a possible future humanity—or a memory of something we once were but have since forgotten.
With a precise, almost alchemical sensitivity to material and form, Sprokel explores how the human and the non-human can merge into one another. Her humanoids are not monsters, but rather poetic mutants that gently yet profoundly stretch the boundaries of our self-image.
They feel both contemporary and timeless: fragile, resilient, and quietly extraordinary.
BIOGRAPHY
Cindy Sprokel (Maastricht, 1961) studied sculpture at the Classical Academy of Sculpture in Groningen, graduating in 2018. Her roots in the far south of the Netherlands and her work within a theatrical environment have become important sources of inspiration for her artistic practice. A subtle nod to the carnivalesque and the theatrical frequently runs through her work, bringing together the exuberance of her Limburg heritage with the quiet sobriety of the north.
At the heart of her oeuvre are hybrid figures in which human and bird merge into one. Starting from the classical human form, she incorporates animal elements, creating a visual language that is both unsettling and compelling. Her sculptures occupy the threshold between reality and imagination: recognisably human, yet unmistakably marked by avian characteristics. Their often dance-like poses and subtle gestures lend the figures a distinctive character and inner tension.
For her sculptures, Cindy works with found and carefully prepared bird remains, including skulls, wings, and legs. The crow—a bird that particularly fascinates her—recurs throughout her work. Reuse and transformation play a central role in her practice, with existing materials repeatedly being given new life and new meaning.
After graduating, Cindy initiated the Groningen-based sculptors' collective Het Paradijs, where artists work and exhibit together. She is also a member of the artists' group De Quasi Realisten. Alongside her own artistic practice, she teaches and is affiliated with the Classical Academy, Bij Vrijdag, and Het Paradijs.
CV
SOLO & GROUP EXHIBITIONS (EEN SELECTIE)
Kunstmaand Ameland
Beeldentuin Kasteel Ravesteyn, Heenvliet,
Kasteel Groeneveld, Baarn, Iconenmuseum, Kampen,
De Hortus, Groningen
Galerie Forma Aktua, Groningen
De Stadsgalerie, Groningen