Still/Life - Contemporary Dutch Photography

After a successful exhibition in Shenzhen in the spring the Amsterdam based photography institution Foam now presents a second exhibition in China: Still/Life – Contemporary Dutch Photography. The exhibition will be shown at the prestigious Three Shadows Photography Arts Center in Beijing on the occasion of an Amsterdam trade delegation to China. The exhibition will be opened on 31 October 2014 in the presence of Amsterdam mayor Eberhard van der Laan.

The group exhibition Still/Life – Contemporary Dutch Photography is centred on the art historical theme of the still life and comprises works of a large number of emerging and established Dutch visual artists. The autonomous and commercial work of Dutch photographers has a recognizable, fresh style which is also characteristic of so-called Dutch Design. The latter refers to a typically Dutch aesthetic taste that is minimalist, experimental, innovative, unconventional and with a touch of humour. A major aspect is that instead of taking photos as a representation of reality, today's photographers take photos entirely staged. Particularly the art historical concept of the still life continues to inspire, albeit in a modernized and updated format. The Potatoes series by Anuschka Blommers and Niels Schumm is a typical example.

Given the choice of photographers, the show forms a survey of the talent that Foam has discovered, followed and presented since 2001: Melanie Bonajo, Kim Boske, Blommers & Schumm, Elspeth Diederix, Annegien van Doorn, Fleur van Dodewaard, Uta Eisenreich, Maurice van Es, Peggy Franck, Marnix Goossens, Eva-Fiore Kovacovsky, Paul Kooiker, Anouk Kruithof, Yvonne Lacet, Ola Lanko, Lernert & Sander, Charlott Markus, Katja Mater, Krista van der Niet, Jaap Scheeren & Hans Gremmen, Scheltens & Abbenes, Diana Scherer, Johannes Schwartz, Ingmar Swalue, Marianne Vierø, Anne de Vries and Qiu Yang.

The exhibition has been presented first at Foam in 2011, and has since travelled to the Multimedia Arts Museum Moscow, the Perm State Art Gallery and the Nizhny Novgorod State Art Museum in the Russian Federation as part of the Netherlands-Russia exchange year in 2013. On the occasion of the show at Three Shadows, new work by has been included by amongst others Scheltens & Abbenes, Elspeth Diederix and Marnix Goossens. Young and upcoming talents such as Annegien van Doorn, Ola Lanko and Maurice van Es have been added to the exhibition. In 2015 Foam will be presenting the work of talented Chinese artists working in the field of photography today.

In conjunction with the exhibition, Foam will also organise a seminar on Museum Management at CAFA, the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Bejing on 30 October 2014. Foam started only thirteen years ago and has been collecting photography actively since 2007. Foam enables people all over the world to experience and enjoy photography, whether it is at the museum (with 200.000 visitors a year) in Amsterdam or via the internationally distributed Foam Magazine.The seminar will focus not only upon the artistic side of a museum but more specifically on how to build a museum on a management level. Alderman Art and Culture of the city of Amsterdam, Kajsa Ollongren, will be the final keynote speaker at this seminar.

The exhibition and the seminar have been made possible with support of the Municipality of Amsterdam, The Embassy of The Netherlands, CAFA and Three Shadows Photographic Art Centre.

* Program:

Thursday 30 October

10am – 11am lecture by Marcel Feil (Artistic Director Foam) on the exhibition Still/Life – Contemporary Dutch Photography

12pm  –  4.30pm Seminar Museum Management

Keynote speakers:

• Marie-Luce Bree (Deputy Director Foam) about ‘Building a Museum’
• Pjotr de Jong (Creative Director of the Amsterdam based creative office Vandejong)  about ‘Building a Brand’
• Chinese museums eg. Three Shadows Gallery from Beijing and He Xiang Ning Art Museum from Shenzhen.
• Kasja Ollongren, Alderman Art and Culture of the city of Amsterdam will close the seminar.

Venue: CAFA (Central Academy of Fine Arts)

www.cafa.edu.cn/

Friday 31 October

Opening exhibition Still/Life – Contemporary Dutch Photography

Time: 3pm