Iris Kensmil, born in Amsterdam in 1970, spent her formative years in Paramaribo during the 1970s and witnessed Suriname becoming independent from the Netherlands in 1975. She returned to the Netherlands in 1979 and went on to study Fine Arts at the Minerva Art Academy in Groningen from 1992 to 1996. I. Kensmil later participated in residencies at the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York, USA, and the Tembe Art Studio in Moengo, Suriname. In 2004 she was awarded the Wim Izaks Prize.

I. Kensmil’s extensive body of work centres on portraiture and encompasses drawings, paintings, murals and installations. Her art provides a counter-narrative to the representation of Black people in Dutch history, culture and canon. Being particularly informed by her people’s experiences of slavery and colonialism, as well as their struggle against racial violence and injustice, I. Kensmil draws key inspiration from politics, African-American art, literature and music and European modern art history. Her portraiture and installations serve as memorial sites where Black history is uncovered and simultaneously immortalised, celebrating political, intellectual and cultural contributions of people of African descent to the world. The installations of drawings and books, Diary of a Chronicler (2016) for the platform Mister Motley’s online art salon and Studie in Zwarte Moderniteit [Study in Black Modernity, 2017] at Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, weave a non-chronological history of events with images of writers, scholars and activists such as Angela Davis, W.E.B. Du Bois, Gloria Wekker, David Hammons, Nelson Mandela, bell hooks and Audre Lorde, movements such as the NAACP, the Nation of Islam and Black Lives Matter, and books documenting the philosophies of Marcus Garvey and Frantz Fanon, amongst others. From a feminist perspective, I. Kensmil places particular emphasis on the images and narratives of Black women, addressing the additional layers of discrimination and erasure they face. This is exemplified in works such as Then They Marched (2008–2010), Black Utopian Feminists (2018–2019), and the series Out of History (2013).

In 2019, I. Kensmil represented the Netherlands at the Venice Biennale alongside Remy Jungerman (1959–), presenting The Measurement of Presence. She has also participated in numerous group exhibitions focusing on Blackness and women’s voices. I. Kensmil’s works are featured primarily in the public collections of Dutch art museums and cultural institutions, including the Amsterdam Museum, the Stedelijk Museum, The Black Archives, the Centraal Museum, the Museum Catharijneconvent in Utrecht, the Van Abbemuseum, and the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. Internationally, her work is also part of the collections at the Surinaams Museum in Paramaribo, Suriname, and the FRAC Picardie in Amiens, France. In 2023, she became a member of the prestigious Akademie van Kunsten, established by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.