Being fascinated by the act of creation since her early childhood, Badriah Suzanna Hamelink enrolled at the Rietveld Academie in the Netherlands in 2006. She went on to do a one year internship in Pietrasanta Italy, where she learned to carve stone from the artisans, creating her first works in marble. Badriah continued her studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Art in Belgium, where she received an Erasmus grant to study at the Fine Arts Academy of Athens in Greece for half a year. In 2011 she completed her studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Art in Belgium, where she graduated with honors.
Fathered by Dutch poet and writer Jacques Hamelink and with the founder of the first Arab study center in the Netherlands for a grandmother, Badriah grew up in a predominantly intellectual environment. Nevertheless she found her own route leading away from the rational towards the intuitive. From scarily fragile to bold and rough, her works never fail to use the power of suggestion
After graduating in Antwerp, Badriah went on to do an in-depth internship at an art foundry in Friesland, learning everything there is to know about molding and casting, and in 2017 founded her studio Atelier BSH in The Hague, continuing the production of her artworks. Motivated to further her career as an artist and to continue the development of her skill set, she went on to learn an ancient Japanese stone splitting technique. This opened up a new way of working and led her to experiment with various types of new materials and techniques. Her works have been shown in galleries and museums in New York, Luxembourg, Stockholm, Milan, Prague, Hawaii and Amsterdam. Badriah’s work can be found in a host of private collections worldwide.
Badriah Hamelink currently lives and works in The Hague, and has her studio at cultural hub Maakhaven. She spends regular working periods in Pietrasanta, Italy.