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The Netherlands
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Next month, Kunstinstituut Melly will inaugurate its Autumn/Winter program with two new solo exhibitions, one featuring work by Dutch artist Iris Kensmil, and another by Caribbean artist Jasmine Thomas-Girvan. Along with the public programs organized in conjunction with their presentation, these are also meant to strike dialogues about the Black Atlantic. This season, Kunstinstituut Melly also presents newly commissioned projects by Kent Chan, Maria Pask, and Joy Mariama Smith; plus, two archival displays, one about our 1997 exhibition on Constant’s New Babylon; another about a peculiar 19th-century museum in Rotterdam focused on education and art.
Iris Kensmil: Some of My Souls
Including a selection of artworks created since 2007 to date, Some of My Souls focuses on Iris Kensmil’s long-standing interest in the role that Black intellectuals, music, and convening have had in emancipation struggles and cultural developments at large. Her art installations, paintings, and drawings figure catalyzers of social change, whether these are sites, events, or people. Raised in Suriname during her early childhood, Kensmil was born in Amsterdam, where she currently lives and works. Her exhibition survey presents the artist’s newest body of work, portraying creative and influential Black young women in the Netherlands.
Jasmine Thomas-Girvan: Bathed in Sacred Fire
For her first solo exhibition in the Netherlands, Jasmine Thomas-Girvan presents newly commissioned work and recent sculptures that delve into her long-standing interests in folklore and myth, contested histories, orality, and literature. Often featuring anthropomorphized characters, each of her poetic assemblages depicts or readily incorporate natural materials from Caribbean landscapes. This exhibition by the Trinidad and Tobago-based artist is presented within the framework of Gatherings and Passages, a new, multi-year collaboration with Sour Grass, focusing on Caribbean contemporary art and culture.
The Hartwig Art Production | Collection Fund, 2020-2021
Also inaugurating on October 1 is Joy Mariama Smith’s Black Joy/White Fragility. This is the first of three exhibitions at Kunstinstituut Melly that are part of The Hartwig Art Production | Collection Fund, 2020–2021, which sets out to stimulate collective experimentation and involves Netherlands-based artists, curators, post-academic, and presentation institutions. Upcoming exhibitions include art projects by Maria Pask and Kent Chan. Here is the dedicated press release for this collaborative exhibition series.
On Constant: New Babylon
In 1997, Kunstinstituut Melly (then named Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art) hosted an exhibition of the legendary Dutch artist Constant Nieuwenhuys (1920–2005). This comprehensive exhibition and accompanying publication focused on his decades-long project New Babylon (1959–1974). This autumn, Kunstinstituut Melly revisits this groundbreaking project: a vitrine display in its MELLY bookshop presents select materials from the exhibition's archive plus events co-organized in collaboration with Het Nieuwe Instituut and Piet Zwart Institute of the Willem de Kooning Academy.
Rotterdam Cultural Histories #20: The Museum of Education and Art
By whom and for whom is learning aimed in a museum? This question is raised in a documentary exhibition about the Museum of Education and Art, our neighbor from 1880 to 1884. Small in scale and yet immersive, the display presents materials drawn from the Rotterdam City Archives. Rotterdam Cultural Histories is a collaborative project between Kunstinstituut Melly and TENT.
Press inquiries
For press requests or for further information, please contact Jeroen Lavèn via press [at] kunstinstituutmelly.nl.
Acknowledgments
The exhibition of Iris Kensmil is curated by Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy. The exhibition of Jasmine Thomas-Girvan is organized by Rosa de Graaf from Kunstinstituut Melly and curated by Sour Grass (Holly Bynoe, Annalee Davis).
Kunstinstituut Melly is supported by the city of Rotterdam and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. The solo exhibitions of Iris Kensmil and Jasmine Thomas-Girvan are also made possible by Ammodo and the Henry Moore Foundation. Our two new partners this season are Hartwig Art Production | Collection Fund and Sour Grass. Outset Netherlands is our partner in 84 STEPS. Additional support to the fall/winter 2021 exhibition program is provided by Goethe-Institut Rotterdam, IASPIS, Stokroos Foundation, Elise Mathilde Foundation, and City Archive Rotterdam. Our partner Droom en Daad Foundation supports our activities for improving our public engagement.
