Invitation II
Francisca Snel
With the second edition of Invitation, Root Gallery presents Francisca Snel.
Snel’s work begins with what is usually overlooked. In her series Crystal Clear, a copper cleaning sponge serves as the starting point, an object closely tied to manual labour, yet rarely acknowledged or consciously observed. It is a material that exists in the background of daily life, used and replaced without much attention.
Opening: 30 May, 15:00–18:00
On view until 11 July 2026
Francisca Snel working with glass during the making process, photo Ben Deiman
By translating this object into glass and copper, its meaning shifts. What is typically functional and temporary becomes something fixed and considered. The work does not attempt to hide its origin, but rather builds on it. Allowing the material to carry its history into a new context.
Glass and copper are present throughout the works. The glass is clear and open, at times almost direct in its transparency, while the copper remains raw and recognisable. There is no effort to fully refine or idealise the material. Instead, the contrast between both elements is maintained, creating a tension between fragility and weight, between precision and irregularity.
Francisca Snel selecting coloured glass elements in the studio, photo Judith Quax
Snel’s process is guided by the behaviour of the materials themselves. Rather than working towards a fixed design, each piece develops through making. Through a series of decisions that respond to what the material allows. This results in works that feel both controlled and open-ended at the same time.
The objects move between design and sculpture, without fully settling into either. While her background in product design is visible, it is not used to resolve function, but to question it. The works ask what we consider valuable, what remains unseen, and how meaning can shift when attention is redirected.
With Invitation, Root Gallery creates space for focused presentations by invited artists within the exhibition programme, following the first edition with Anna Oudhof. These presentations are not conceived as full exhibitions, but as precise interventions. Offering a first introduction to a practice, and opening up a dialogue within the space.
About the artist
Francisca Snel (b. 1982, Tiel) lives and works in Wommels. She graduated from the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam (BA Product Design, 2019–2023), where she developed a practice centred on material, process, and the relationship between objects and their context.
Her work is driven by a close engagement with the materials she uses. Rather than applying a concept onto a material, Snel allows the material itself to guide the direction of the work. This approach results in objects that are shaped through making, where process, technique, and outcome remain closely connected.
By working with accessible and recognisable materials, she challenges existing perceptions and encourages a more attentive way of looking. Everyday objects and systems are not taken for granted, but reconsidered. Often revealing the structures and forms of labour that underpin them.
In recent years, her work has been presented at Object Rotterdam (2026) and in exhibitions such as Catch! at Foar de Floed (2025) and wanHoop at Flower Art Museum (2024). Her work is included in the collection of Museum Dr8888. In 2026, she will present a solo exhibition at Museum it Tsiispakhûs (Wommels) and participate in the group exhibition Wetter & Moar at Museum Dr8888 (Drachten).
