Indra Joachimsthal

Indra Joachimsthal (2001, Utrecht, The Netherlands) is a visual artist who recently graduated (2025) from the Royal Academy of Art (KABK) in The Hague. Her practice centers on painting, with a particular focus on automatism as a creative method. She began her artistic journey studying Interactive Performance Design at HKU, where she designed and built interactive experiences at the intersection of theatre, games, and fine art. Realizing that her passion lay more in the material than in the digital, she shifted her focus to painting during her time at KABK, where she came to concentrate primarily on oil painting and the possibilities of automatic techniques.

Automatic Painting

At the heart of Joachimsthal’s practice lies automatic painting, a method rooted in traditions ranging from spiritualism and psychoanalysis to surrealism. Through this intuitive process, she embraces the unknown, seeking to give form to what escapes rational explanation. Her paintings reflect a dialogue between the inner and outer worlds, where bodies become landscapes, animals shift in scale, and finite spaces open into infinity. By exploring these contrasts—internal and external, rational and irrational, real and imaginary—Joachimsthal blurs boundaries and reveals the vastness within the human experience.

Education 

• HKU University of the Arts, Utrecht – Interactive Performance Design (BA, started)

• Royal Academy of Art (KABK), The Hague – Bachelor’s degree, Fine Art (2025)