An exhibition in the Beyerd in 1983

In 1983 Marlies participated in a group exhibition at the Beyerd Museum in Breda with Tsjitske Dijkstra and Annerie Teuling. 

Marjan Mes praised the exhibition - a fine design by Martin van Opdorp - in De Stem on Wednesday, 20 April 1983 (p. 20):

Ceramics, between art, decoration and function

Today's applied art, including ceramics, generally shows much affinity with contemporary painting and sculpture. They influence each other mutually and sometimes are barely separable. 

Many ceramics hardly have a practical function anymore and can mostly be viewed as objects in their own right, where the boundary between art and decoration has been blurred or removed altogether. 

The three ceramists from the Breda region, all in their late thirties and already working (inter)nationally for about fifteen years after studying at St. Joost Breda, pretty much stand between the two views. 

Their vases, pots and bowls are still recognizable as such, but in most cases you wouldn't think of putting a bunch of flowers or fruit in them. For that, form and decoration are too colorful and dominant.

Marlies van Wijk, who travels a lot (Japan and Africa, among others) and therefore has a broad vision of her craft, is the only one who is represented with a kind of conceptual, arte-povera-like work.

It consists of 903 clay "hand grips" arranged in parallel rows in the form of a square. They appear to be bones, some of which contain handwriting, forming a cross shape within the otherwise all-white piece. A fascinating object with an archaeological mysteriousness about it.

Marlies van Wijk's vases have the angular appearance of boxes with folded edges and a distinctive plastical skin.

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Martin van Opdorp has beautifully designed the exhibition using a wall of gray brick as a backdrop and a partition for the artwork on display.

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