A new beginning with Beppie Gielkens: Painting Otherwise
The spring program of the cultural center and non-profit gallery The Merchant House (TMH) starts with an exhibition by the Dutch artist Beppie Gielkens. From Friday 11 March to Friday 6 May, TMH will be showing the most recent work by this inspired colorist under the title Painting Otherwise: a reference to her idiosyncratic working method. Gielkens’s new paintings (egg tempera on cotton) are best defined as a superior exploration of the physical and painterly properties of color. With the help of line and color, she creates a powerful story structure that invites new ways of reading.
Beppie Gielkens
Beppie Gielkens (Oirsbeek, 1942) was educated at the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht and had her first solo exhibition there in 1971. Since then she regularly exhibits in Dutch galleries. Her work has also been shown in group exhibitions in the Fries Museum in Leeuwarden and Museum Belvedère in Heerenveen.
As early as the late 1980s, the art publicist Huub Mous described her work as an ‘intuitive urge to arrange and rearrange, in a new connection’. Much of her work came about during her annual stays in Egypt. There she exhibited in the Fine Arts Gallery/Cairo Opera House in 1989 and in the Mashrabia Gallery, Cairo, in 1994. Gielkens lives with her husband, artist André de Jong, in Broeksterwoude, Friesland.
The Merchant House was Founded in 2013 by Marsha Plotnitsky.
The Merchant House represents a new look at the traditions that connect the city and the arts. As Artistic Director, Plotnitsky has curated more than thirty themed contemporary art projects since 2013. She also edits TMH’s discussion program on art and writes and edits the publications.
The gallery’s projects focus on Dutch and international innovators such as John Coplans, Hilarius Hofstede, Craigie Horsfield, André de Jong, Henk Peeters, Pino Pinelli, Judit Reigl, Carolee Schneemann, Jan Schoonhoven, and André Stempfel, in addition to young talent. Merchanthouse.nl provides detailed information about the complete program, as well as about the work and backgrounds of the artists.
Spring program 2022
- March 11 – May 6 Beppie Gielkens: Painting Otherwise Opening Friday 11 March 18.00 – 20.00
- May 11 – July 2 Pino Pinelli: Four decades of ‘Rettangolo Tagliato’ Opening Thursday 12 May 18.00 – 20.00 with Amsterdam Art Week Agenda Special events and period room projects Friday,
- March 4 – Saturday, April 2 On display: Hilarius Hofstede & Kokou Ferdinand Makouvia Commissioned installations in the period room and garden
- Friday, April 8, at 8 p.m Music: TMH and Tomoko Mukaiyama present Of Sound & Song I In the first concert in this new series, pianist Tomoko Mukaiyama gives a performance of Morton Feldman’s ‘For Bunita Marcus’ (1986) on the Steinway grand piano. A limited number of seats. Tickets for the concert and the Nazit: Tomoko.nl
- Friday 8 April – Friday 6 May On display: Elsa Tomkowiak, André de Jong, Hilarius Hofstede, Mengzhi Zheng The group exhibition in the period room emphasizes the series of special editions that TMH started during the pandemic, in combination with related work by the artists. The editions were created in collaboration with the artists and printing company Cultura.
- Sunday 15 May (time to follow) Amsterdam Art Week Special Meet the artist: Mary Sue’s Patatras! The first indoor land art game. The game is a limited edition artwork. It can serve as a serious pastime, but at the same time, it is an ironic reflection on the ambitions of land art.
Reservation required: info@merchanthouse.nl
Admission to exhibitions and events at The Merchant House is free unless otherwise noted.
The Merchant House
Herengracht 254
1016 BV Amsterdam
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