Bidspirit auction | Marloes Hakkers

Marloes Hakkers - ''Oleg'' 2026. There is a solemnity to Oleg that reads, at first, as simple stillness, the kind of presence that doesn't ask for attention because it already holds it. Half his face sits in shadow, the other lit plainly, almost formally, like something carved rather than painted. It's only with time that the solemnity starts to shift. Something moves under the surface. Not sadness exactly, but something held very quietly, very close. The longer you look, the less simple that stillness seems. Oil on paper, mounted and framed 23/17 cm signed Marloes Hakkers is a figurative painter based in Tel Aviv, originally from the Netherlands. Born into a working-class family, she grew up in a single-mother household where pursuing a career in painting simply didn’t feel like a possibility. Nine years ago she moved to Israel, and it was here, with the support of her husband, that she finally gave herself permission to pursue what she couldn’t ignore. Her entire artistic education took place in Israel: she studied for a year at the Jerusalem Studio School under Yedidya Hershberg and Deborah Sebaoun, continued with courses under Ilya Gefter, and has since been studying with David Nipo. Israel didn’t just become her home; it became the place where she became a painter. Her work moves between portrait, still life, and landscape, though subject matter is secondary to her. Whether it’s a face or a lemon, it always comes down to shape, light, and perception. She paints because she has to. It is, as she puts it, “the one constant in my life that never leaves.” ''I often find myself questioning what realism really is. We like to think we see and paint “reality, ” but every painting is just a frozen moment of perception, a mix of observation and interpretation. My work is rooted in looking closely: at light, at form, at fleeting moments.''