Shani Leseman

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Contact or overview available works:
info@shanileseman.nl

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Screening Bericht van de Duif during Dressing Characters at Das Leben am Haverkamp
The costumes were made by Dewi Bekker and Anouk van Klaveren from Das Leben am Haverkamp
The video is a collaboration with feral pigeons living in The Hague and Rotterdam, Norbert Storm and GC Heemskerk

Coming winter the Rembrandthuis will be my (open) studio during a residency together with Marije Gertenbach 🧙
I’ll be perfecting some of my paint recipes, brew new ones and try some monotype experiments ive been wanting to do :))

Foto Aad Hoogendoorn for Rembrandt Open Studio 2026, Museum Rembrandthuis, Amsterdam

Screening Dogs in Paradise and launch of zines Dogs in Paradise #1 & #2 with Hi, Jack! Publishing
at Temp, Antwep curated by Wumen Ghua

Collaboration with GC Heemskerk & the dogs and dogs spirits of Curaçao. Thanks to Curacao Animal Rights Foundation & Stefan Animal Rescue 🥰

The result of our residency at het Resort in Groningen will be on show at game shop Purperen Draak, opening 30th of october.

For Analysis Paralysis, Shani Leseman, Thijs Jaeger and Mathias Mu immersed themselves in the culture surrounding board games, card games and role-playing games. Especially for Purperen Draak, they created new artworks exploring the rituals, objects, stories, and worlds that emerge from this culture. What happens when a game object takes on meaning beyond the game itself? When does a miniature become a character, a card a valuable object, or an instrument a means of bringing new stories to life?

‘Dogs in Paradise’
a result from a visit to Curacao with my friend GC Heemskerk.
This video is about the dogs and dog spirits of Curacao, about who has the right to roam the streets, the (magical) powers of dogs and their (future) relationships with humans. 🐲🪺
Supported by Stroom Den Haag

Parrot Witch, 90 x 120 cm, monotype with earth pigments and synthetic pigments, acrylic paint and oilpastel on satin woven cotton

on show at Plucking the Broom, No Limits! Art Castle

Bodies of Water
Mural with earth pigments, drawings with plant inks and photocopies from witches’ zines

in Buitenplaats Kasteel Wijlre
Photos Peter Cox
assisted by GC Heemskerk

Showing a new monotype painting and driftwood collage works in Plucking the Broom
at No Limits! Art Castle with fellow witches 🕯️🐦‍🔥
The driftwood pieces I got from Stefan when I was volunteering at his rescue center on Curacao. Having a bond with another animal, a familiar, was enough to be interpreted as evidence of magical practices and thereby to be accused of witchcraft. To form a bond with other species asks to pay attention to a world that does not exist solely on human terms, to be in touch with one’s surrounding, and that is the basis of many practices of magic and modern witchcraft alike. On the driftwoods are pictures of Goofy, Gail, Sambo, Charlie and Hugo and fragments of several texts on magic and witchcraft 👁️‍🗨️🗯️ Some of them are also collaborations with GC. And all of these works are for sale in the gallery of No Limits between 200-250€, my % will go directly to Stefan’s rescue center <3
The collaged texts are from: 
Water and Dreams - Gaston Bachelard Apocalyptic Witchcraft - Peter Grey
Wikipedia on Familiars
History of Magic - Chris Godsen
The Women’s encyclopedia of Symbols and Sacred Objects - Barbara Walker
Energy Magic - Silvia Hartmann

Showing new work in the exhibition Plucking the Broom at No Limits! Art Castle, opening 4th of September and on show unill 29th of November

17:00 - 21:00, No Limits! Art Castle - Sint Annendwarsstraat 9C

Reason only recently rules here - Act 2 (2026)

A collaboration with Trees Heil.
Both of our practices are rooted in a magical world view, where there is more to life than rational ‘reality’. Things we can feel, dream, vaguely see, things we memorize, predict or imagine. Endless talks and ideas on these topics turned into collaborative photographic works, a result of thinking-by-doing (rather than trying to explain). For this series we are directly inspired by the visual language of spirit photography and brought it to the studio, while we also capture ourselves and thereby, our friendship. 🔮 🔮