Marjan Bik is a sculptor and works primarily from her studio at Studio BK 49 in Amsterdam. She creates figurative sculptures – mainly portraits and figures of humans and animals – and works in clay, wax and bronze.
Marjan grew up in an environment in which both parents worked in contemporary design on a daily basis, which encouraged her to pursue a degree in the visual arts. Since both the artistic and education aspects appealed to her, she undertook courses at the Academy of Visual Arts in Amersfoort and the Foundation for Teacher Training in Utrecht, with figurative sculpture as her graduation project. Subsequently, she taught courses on visual arts in various high schools in The Netherlands. Additionally, Marjan managed to pursue a career out of her passion for travel: she was hired as a (part-time) cabin attendant at KLM, the Dutch Royal Airlines.
Besides her work commitments, Marjan has always aimed to keep developing her skills in classical figurative sculpture. She has participated in the Summer Course Portrait and Figurative Sculpture at the Florence Academy of Art, taught by Robert Bodem, Sanne van Tongeren, Hywel Pratley and Eran Webber (2012), and followed masterclasses with Richard MacDonald in Carmel, California (2004), Etienne Millner in London (2012 and 2014), and Grzegorz Gwiazda at the Barcelona Academy of Art (2016 and 2019), Eudald de Juana Gorriz in Lustleigh (2017).
After retiring from her teaching activities, Marjan now works as an independent sculptor in Amsterdam. Besides her figure studies, she specialises in portrait sculpture. Marjan: ‘The interaction between the portrayed and the sculptor is a very special process, a unique encounter. To catch that one look out of the wide array of someone’s facial expressions and filter that through my own eyes is a fantastic and enriching challenge.’
Marjan often takes on commissions for individuals and companies alongside her personal work.
