Dr. Matisse Huiskens

Biography

Matisse Huiskens is a lecturer in Modern and Contemporary Art at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. His current work focuses on a book project titled ‘Fred Carasso Antifascist Imagination: Art, Exile, Italian Sculpture Low Countries.' His research broadly addresses the intersection of art and social challenges in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, with a particular focus on artistic and curatorial practices that engage with political ideologies, national identities, (forced) migration, self-representation, and exhibition histories. Huiskens has refocused his scholarly perspective on artists who migrated from Ireland since the 1950s, examining curatorial practices on the island, especially after the establishment of the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) in Dublin in 1991. He has devoted special attention to the curatorial work of Paul O'Neill. Over the past few years, he has served as a Research Fellow at the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome (KNIR) and the Dutch University Institute for Art History in Florence (NIKI). In 2024, Huiskens has been invited back to KNIR to teach a newly designed course focusing on artists in residence during the early modern period, collaborating with Dr. Laura Overpelt and curator Melle van Maanen from Museum Het Schip in Amsterdam on an upcoming exhibition scheduled to open in Spring 2026.

Research Interests

Experience