5 Years of TMH: Fall/winter 2018–19 program and publications

In her curatorial choices for the anniversary program, Marsha Plotnitsky, Founding Artistic Director, proposes to acknowledge and yet suspend our relationship with the past. Funded by art sales, TMH continues to emphasize free public events and a shared experience of art.

Exhibition projects

Making Things Happen: Young Artists Remix (Photography)
Sylvie Bonnot, Zhu Hong, Mary Sue, Elsa Tomkowiak, Boris Chouvellon, Mengzhi Zheng
September 7–October 19
Remix traces the weight of photography across multiple mediums exploited by the six young French participants. It rounds up the 2017/18 cycle curated jointly by Marsha Plotnitsky and the art writer Hubert Besacier.

Independent Brussels 2018
Pino Pinelli, Mary Sue, Elsa Tomkowiak
Friday–Sunday, November 9–11
Throughout the long career of Pino Pinelli and in the work of two young artists, TMH continues to explore the contemporary art object and its emergence in a performative act.

Matter of Masters: 5 Years of TMH
Dennis Oppenheim, Judit Reigl, Hilarius Hofstede, Craigie Horsfield, Carolee Schneemann
November 22, 2018–January 18, 2019 (in preview from Friday, November 2)
The show takes its cue from the oeuvre of Dennis Oppenheim (US, 1938–2011). It draws attention to the boundaries and expression of nonlinear thinking on painting by the artists from TMH’s Masterworks program.

Masterworks Series 2019
André de Jong. Revelations
February 1–April 19, 2019
André de Jong returns to TMH with a solo show of new work on paper. Centered on his series “St. Sebastian,” 2017, it presents the artist’s complex themes and methods of working.

Events, talks, music

Friday–Sunday, September 21–23
12–6pm: Special opening hours, Celebrating Unseen 2018

Saturday, September 22
6–8pm: TMH Roundtable. Meet the artists
8–10pm: Unseen Open Gallery Night

Friday, October 19
7–9pm: Screening and Young Artists Remix (Photography) finissage
Program TBA

Friday–Sunday, November 9–11
Independent Brussels. We are there to meet with you

Thursday–Sunday, November 22–25
12–6pm: Special opening hours, Amsterdam Art Weekend

Friday, November 23
5–9pm: Opening, Matter of Masters

Sunday, November 25
3–5pm: TMH Music Special
Luciano Berio: Remembering the Future
Flutist Machiko Takahashi, introduction by Marsha Plotnitsky

Friday, December 14
7–9pm: TMH 5-Year Anniversary Special
Performance program TBA

Saturday, January 19, 2019
3-5pm: TMH Screening and Talk
Schneemann and Reigl. Program TBA

Friday, February 1
7-9pm: Opening, André de Jong. Revelations

Dates are subject to change. RSVP for events: invitations [​at​] merchanthouse.nl
Entry to exhibitions and events at The Merchant House is free

Ongoing

Flag of Compassion—from September 7
The Flag of Compassion on TMH’s façade is an artistless project. Rather than a symbol, the flag is a concept of a universal human value and of its most personal expression.

Museum in a Box: Art & Project Bulletins 1-156, 1969-1989—from October 2
These landmark artists’ books are a display of ideas of Sol LeWitt, Lawrence Weiner, Daniel Buren, Jan Dibbets, and Ger van Elk, among many other major conceptual artists.

TMH publications

Masterworks Series catalogues
Jan Frank, Jan Schoohoven/Henk Peeters, André de Jong, Carolee Schneemann, Chuck Close, Hilarius Hofstede, Judit Reigl, Pino Pinelli

Making Things Happen: Young Artists in Dialogue
Catalogues/artists’ books—set of six: Sylvie Bonnot, Zhu Hong, Elsa Tomkowiak, Mary Sue, Boris Chouvellon, Mengzhi Zheng

About The Merchant House
The Merchant House presents contemporary art projects with sales of art as a funding strategy. Each project, curated by TMH’s Founding Artistic Director Marsha Plotnitsky, brings together an extended exhibition, cultural and research events and a dedicated catalogue/artist’s book. TMH has showcased international and Dutch innovators, such as Henk Peeters, Jan Schoonhoven, André de Jong, Chuck Close, Carolee Schneemann, Hilarius Hofstede, Craigie Horsfield, Judit Reigl, and Pino Pinelli, as well as young talent. Since it opened its doors in a historical canal house in Amsterdam in 2013, it has become known as a modern take on the Dutch tradition of a merchant—a vibrant art space freely open to the public.

Program funded by art sales