About

Dora Lionstone (*1986, Potsdam, DE) is a visual artist based in Amsterdam. She graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in 2020 with a BA in Photography and previously worked as a software engineer in Germany, holding an MSc in Media Informatics. Her work has been shown internationally at exhibitions, festivals, and institutions including FOAM and the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. She was selected as FRESH EYES European Talent (2021), was runner-up for the OD Photo Prize and Incadaqués Photo Festival (2022), and has received several grants from the Mondriaan Fund. She is co-founder of SPROUT PUBLISH.

Influenced by her background in software engineering, Lionstone approaches the image as a system that can be dismantled, reprogrammed, and reassembled. Her practice examines how realities are shaped through technical, psychological, and imaginative frameworks, influencing how we perceive the visible and invisible. Working across photography, installation, animation, and text, she combines rule-based processes with intuitive material interventions. Through repetition and restricted visual languages, she constructs environments where order and instability coexist, treating images as open structures that evolve through intervention and question binary thinking and linear narratives.

info@doralionstone.com | @doralionstoned

EXHIBITIONS

2026 PHOTOPOLIS FESTIVAL - Home-s, Agrinio, GR
2025 ENCONTROS DA IMAGEM - Photobooks Award 2025, Braga, PT
2023 ORPHANS FROM THE STUDIO, Wunderkammer - NDSM Fuse, Amsterdam, NL
2023 JUST LIKE ESCHER, Escher In The Palace, The Hague, NL
2023 ASAMA INTERNATIONAL PHOTO FESTIVAL - MIYOTA PHOTO, Nagana, JP
2023 FLOAT MAGAZINE - Home is Where (online)
2023 TIJDGEEEST EN SPOOKBEELDEN, NDSM Fuse, Amsterdam, NL
2023 ART ROTTERDAM - PROSPECTS 2023, Van Nelle Factory, Rotterdam, NL
2023 CONNECTION, Amsterdam Central Station, Amstelpassage, NL
2023 LICHTKUNSTFEST, Pavillion am Milchhof, Berlin, DE
2022 DEAD DARLINGS, Vrij Paleis, Amsterdam, NL
2022 OD PHOTO PRIZE, Photo Book Café, London, UK
2022 INCADAQUÉS PHOTO FESTIVAL, Cadaqués, ES
2022 IN-CORPUS PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL, Arles, FR
2022 THE OTHER BOOK, The Hague, NL
2022 RESIDENCY PRESENTATION, Arteles Creative Center, FI
2022 FEBRUARY ART MARKET, Vrij Paleis, Amsterdam, NL
2021 FRESH EYES 2021, Rotterdam, NL
2021 COSMIC STREAM, murmur, Amsterdam, NL (SOLO)
2021 KOSMOS LEM, Rechenzentrum, Potsdam, DE
2021 EPHEMERAL ETERNITY, IESA Galerie, Paris, FR
2021 THE CURATED FRIDGE, SUMMER SHOW, Online
2021 IN-CORPUS PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL, Arles, FR
2021 IMAGINÁRIA PHOTO FESTIVAL, LA PROMESA, Castellón, ES (DUO)
with Cris Bartual
2021 THE CONSTRUCTED IMAGE, F-STOP Magazine, Online
2021 JONG TALENT 2020, Artphy, Onstwedde, NL
2021 DEAD DARLINGS, W139, Amsterdam, NL
2020 GUP NEW PHOTO TALENT, Kahmann Gallery, Amsterdam, NL
2020 CURVES 'N' FORMS, Haze Gallery, Berlin, DE
2020 ONWARD & UPWARD, Droog, Amsterdam, NL
2020 GERRIT RIETVELD ACADEMIE-THE GRADUATION SHOW, FOAM, Amsterdam, NL
2020 THE CLASS OF 2020, In the In-Between, Online
2020 GRADUATION SHOW, Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam, NL
2020 NOORDERLICHT PHOTO FESTIVAL, FUTURAMA, Museum Belvédère, Heerenveen, NL
2020 ARLYLZA, Vrij Paleis, Amsterdam, NL
2020 RELEARNING IMAGES, PuntWG, Amsterdam, NL
2019 RETHINKING BAUHAUS, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, NL
2019 UNSEEN FESTIVAL, THE SPONGE, THE CLAY, THE BRICK AND THE BRIDGE, Amsterdam, NL
2019 NEUHAUS, ACADEMY FOR MORE THAN HUMAN KNOWLEDGE, Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam, NL
2019 FRAZZLED FICTIONS, Gallery 5&33, Amsterdam, NL
2018 WINDOW, Galerie De Vijf Ramen, Arnhem, NL
2018 GERRIT TURNS 50, WILLEM ONLY 28, Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam, NL
2018 MISSION NOSE OUT, Beautiful Distress, Amsterdam, NL
2018 CRINGE, Museum of the Mind, Haarlem, NL
2018 UNCUT FESTIVAL, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, NL
2018 MACHINE VISION, Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam, NL
2016 BERLIN FOTO BIENNALE, Palazzo Italia, Berlin, DE

EDUCATION

2016-2020 BA Photography, Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam, NL
2008-2011 MSc Media Informatics, Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, DE
2005-2008 BSc Media Informatics, Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, DE

AWARDS & GRANTS

2025 MONDRIAAN FUND, Voucher Development
2024 MONDRIAAN FUND, Voucher Artist With Child
2023 GOMMA GRANT - GOMMA NEW FLAVOURS AWARD 2022, Finalist
2023 BOUTOGRAPHIES, Shortlisted
2022 OD PHOTO PRIZE, Runner-Up
2022 GIBELLINA PHOTOROAD FESTIVAL, Shortlisted
2022 INCADAQUÉS PHOTO FESTIVAL, Runner-Up
2022 MONDRIAAN FUND, Artist Start Grant
2021 FRESH EYES EUROPEAN TALENT
2021 GUP NEW PHOTO TALENT
2020 ATHENS PHOTO FESTIVAL, Shortlisted
2016 JULIA MARGARET CAMERON AWARD, Category Winner
2005 HEIDI KLEBER AWARD, Winner

RESIDENCIES / Workshops

2024-2025 Nearest Truth Year-long Photobook Workshop, Physical Workshop Tier
2022 Arteles, Hämeenkyrö, Finland

INTERVIEWS

PRINTED PUBLICATIONS

2023 FLOAT Magazine, Home is Where
2023 PHOTONEWS, 2/2023 - Portfolio Review
2022 DITO PUBLISHING, CATS
2022 FOTONICA DIARY, I.D.
2021 HET NIEUWE INSTITUUT,Expansive Bodies: Contesting Design at Het Nieuwe Instituut
2021 CONCRETE NATURE, Out of Office
2021 YOGURT Magazine, MOJO Flavour
2021 GUP MAGAZINE, FRESH EYES
2021 GUP MAGAZINE, GUP NEW
2020 RIETVELD PHOTOGRAPHY, Quarantine Times
2019 HET NIEUWE INSTITUUT, Neuhaus - Academy for more-than-human knowledge
2018 A MARCH ISSUE by Line Arngaard & Sonia Oet
2016 INTERNATIONALE KUNST HEUTE

ONLINE FEATURES

2022 Apituley & De Schepper - Takeover
2022 Photoworks UK - Takeover
2021 Discarded Magazine - Cosmic Stream Book Review
2021 Fotonica Diary - I.D. Interview
2021 Homeostasis Lab, The First Breath of the Earth
2021 Homeostasis Lab, Cosmic Streaming
2021 Het Nieuwe Instituut, Who is we?
2021 F-Stop Magazine, The Constructed Image
2020 Next Nature Network, "Next Generation: Hearing the first breath of Earth with Dora Lionstone"
2018 Stedelijk Studies, Lose Yourself

BOOK FAIRS / SHOPS

GHENT Artbook Fair, BYOB Fair, THE OTHER BOOK, CHARTA Photobook Festival, FOAM Museum, Fanzineist Vienna, Fotoboekenbeurs, Stedelijk Museum, Polycopies, Libros Mutantes, Unseen Photo Fair

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