Rini Hartman · Conceptual Artist / Creative Facilitator

The most important things are not things

Order of Appearance: five children in navy coats stand with their backs to us in front of a pale wall, from the tallest on the left to a small boy on the right. Their shadows on the wall run the other way: the boy casts the tallest shadow, the eldest the smallest. Above the wall, a blue sky with upside-down clouds. — Order of Appearance
Work · 2026

Any-media artist. I honour freedom, playfulness and what lies beneath. Curiosity, a message between the lines, or simply nothing in between. The full spectrum and vitality of the arts, connection, and life itself. Whatever born, whatever died: all be-ing in existence.

2011, reprinted 2026A spiritual guide to true emptiness

How I work

I applied to the Rietveld Academie and was turned down. Too thought out, they said. That told me what I am. I can't draw a tree, and I never needed to. I use whatever makes people see differently: algorithmic software, a video game, a wine bottle, an empty book, and now AI. The tools change. The method does not.

Twenty years of work, from the UN development goals to a book with blank pages.

See the work

Book · 2011, reprinted 2026

The Power of Nothing

‘Nothing will come of nothing.’William Shakespeare, King Lear

A spiritual guide to true emptiness

It looks like the bestseller you half-remember. It comes sealed in plastic, and the back cover is full of glowing reviews, all invented. Inside: 194 pages of nothing.

It's a comment on the self-help industry and on wisdom sold by the kilo. Many buyers end up using it as a notebook, which is probably the best advice it gives.

194 pages · paperback
ISBN 978-90-817133-1-3
Published by Art for Social Change

Order a copy Signed copy by email

Interactive work · 2026

What about me?

Find your way home with this interactive mushroom.

Opens soon

Developed with Jev.AI and Claude Fable 5.1

Ideas are things worth contemplating

Series · 2012

Money's Illusion

Amsterdam

Value and belief

A series about money and art, and about how much of value is belief. What makes a banknote worth something, and a picture of one worth something else?

Digital works, each in an edition of 12.

The failed King of the Blind: a 100 dollar note seen through prison bars, Franklin's face behind the middle bar — Featured work · 2012
The failed King of the Blind

The story

After The Country of the Blind by H.G. Wells

A mountaineer slips and falls down the far side of a mountain, into a valley where, generations earlier, illness took away everyone's sight. He keeps repeating the old saying to himself: in the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. He sees his chance.

But the people of the valley have sharpened every other sense. They have never known sight, so to them he is a madman, or a man with an overactive imagination. He never becomes king.

Rien ne va plus: concentric rings of 100 dollar notes in purple, yellow and green, like a target — Rien ne va plus

Bubbless: dozens of spheres printed with Benjamin Franklin, floating on bright blue — Bubbless

The curious wrinkles of Uncle Benjamin: a 100 dollar note seen as a rippling water surface, the face distorted — The curious wrinkles of Uncle Benjamin

No name: a 500 euro note dissolving into swirls on black — No name

We both started crying as we saw our future: a star-shaped flower made of 500 euro notes against dark green leaves — We both started crying as we saw our future

Don Yuan and the irresistible G-spot: translucent banknotes drifting across a rainbow gradient, with one small green coin — Don Yuan and the irresistible G-spot

Silly Pounds / Brexit/Flexit: a grid of identical banknotes on black, some slowly curling into spirals — Silly Pounds / Brexit/Flexit

In the name of Triple Reality: a kaleidoscope pattern of 100 euro notes in blue, pink and cyan around dark triangles — In the name of Triple Reality

Subvertisement · for Ayahuasca Nexus

It's the real thing

Poster in the style of a vintage soft-drink advert: a glass of dark liquid with ice, the word Ayahuasca in swooping script, and the headline It's the real thing. Ayahuasca. The small print reads: We trust you can tell this is a mock-up. Ayahuasca isn't, it's serious. And not for everyone. Educate yourself first.

Tradition and research

An advert for something that should never be advertised. It borrows the look of the most familiar drink in the world, and then the small print says what matters: ayahuasca is serious, and not for everyone. Educate yourself first.

That is what Ayahuasca Nexus is for: a place where ceremonial knowledge and scientific research sit side by side, without the hype.

Visit ayahuasca.nexus

Work · 2008–2009

8 Visions of Hope

UNESCO Headquarters, Paris · Museum of the National Bank of Belgium, Brussels

Eight goals, eight works

Eight works for the eight UN Millennium Development Goals. Each began as a photograph from Africa or South America, which I reworked through algorithmic software, again and again, until it resonated.

They were issued in editions of 189, one for each of the 189 UN member states that agreed the goals in 2000. Canvas 100 × 100 cm, paper 50 × 50 cm, signed and numbered.

Shared fruits should be televised: a figure in front of a television screen, smeared with streaks of blue and amber — MDG 1Shared fruits should be televised

She is a hero: a woman carrying a load on her head, framed in an ornate orange oval among red and green leaves — MDG 3She is a hero

Mothers blessing: pale, almost white relief of a mother's face pressed to a child's — MDG 5Mothers blessing

Crossing borders: a dark mosaic of glowing coloured cells, like stained glass — MDG 6Crossing borders

Back to school bliss: two children with backpacks walking away, the photo broken into vivid green, orange and violet patches — MDG 2Back to school bliss

The rhythm of life has a lovely beat: flame-like bands of red, yellow and green inside a white diamond on black — MDG 4The rhythm of life has a lovely beat

We're all in the same boat: a man paddling a dugout canoe on a river, in cold blue light — MDG 7We're all in the same boat

Zero point seven gravity: floating glass spheres on black, each holding a small light and a small dark figure on a globe — MDG 8Zero point seven gravity

Series · 2023

Orixás

Yemanjá: a woman's face with bright blue eyes, a breaking ocean wave running across it where the cheeks would be, framed by shells, coral and blue jewels — Yemanjá

Pretos Velhos: an elderly man and woman in white robes and head wraps seated side by side among candles, beads and small figures, each with a golden halo — Pretos Velhos

Experiments with AI

A series made in 2023 with DALL·E. The orixás and spirits, the way I see them, which is often different from how they are usually shown.

The tools keep changing. The method stays the same: rework the image, again and again, until it resonates.

About

Any medium that works

Self-taught

I started in new media art in the early 2000s: an interactive documentary, Monsters of Another World (2004), and SOIL (2006), a machinima film made with video games. For Cheque de Realidad (2005), about oil pollution in the Ecuadorian Amazon, I made a fake luxury wine and filled the bottle with polluted water from the rainforest.

Then came 8 Visions of Hope, and in 2011 The Power of Nothing. In 2006 I also founded Céu das Artes. Now I'm returning to making art, with AI tools as my instrument.

‘His inspired work testifies his strong belief in the power of art to challenge society's deepest assumptions and spark new ideas.’UNESCO, Paris, 2009

Exhibitions

2010Gallery Weesperzijde, Amsterdam (group)
2009UNESCO Headquarters, Paris
2009Museum of the National Bank of Belgium, Brussels
2009Kragerø Bedehus, Kragerø, Norway
2009De Baak, Driebergen
2008RAI, Amsterdam

Get in touch

For prints, books or a conversation.

rini@rinihartman.nl

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