Bouke de Vries, Guan Yin with a ‘Pronk’ plate, 2024, 17th- and 18th-century porcelain, Courtesy Bouke de Vries, Galerie Ron Mandos, Amsterdam

In the UNBROKEN exhibition, artist Bouke de Vries pays tribute to his muses. One of them he stumbled upon at London’s Portobello Road Market: a figurine of Guan Yin, the goddess of mercy and compassion in Chinese Buddhism. 

Ever since, Guan Yin has remained a source of inspiration for him, and has been featured regularly in his work.

Guan Yin is often depicted surrounded by a cloud of circles. Bouke translated this into a three-dimensional version using plates. The reddish plate at the bottom right is especially remarkable: real Pronk porcelain. This rare dinnerware was made in China in 1735, designed by Dutch artist Cornelis Pronk.

This object is a part of the exhibition 𝘉𝘰𝘶𝘬𝘦 𝘥𝘦 𝘝𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴: 𝘜𝘕𝘉𝘙𝘖𝘒𝘌𝘕

𝘕𝘰𝘸 𝘰𝘯 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘸, 𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘭 16.08.2026. 𝘕𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘶𝘮 𝘰𝘧 𝘊𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘤𝘴, 𝘗𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘩𝘰𝘧 (𝘓𝘦𝘦𝘶𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘯, 𝘕𝘓)