Foam opens exhibition in China
Still/Life - Contemporary Dutch Photography
24 April – 24 May, 2015

After a exhibition The Space Between Us, organised in collaboration with He Xiangning Art Museum in Shenzhen in the spring of 2014, and the successful exhibition Still/Life, in collaboration with He Xiangning Art Museum in the fall of last year, the Amsterdam based photography museum Foam now presents a third exhibition in China: Still/Life – Contemporary Dutch Photography. This exhibition curated by Foam’s artistic director Marcel Feil, will be shown at the Shanghai Himalayas Museum from 24 April until 24 May, 2015. Celebrating the relations between The Netherlands and China, the exhibition is also part of the Dutch Days.

The group exhibition Still/Life – Contemporary Dutch Photography is centered 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 that 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 humor. A major aspect is that instead of taking photos as a representation of reality, many of 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.

Participating Artist
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, 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, Anne de Vries and Qiu Yang.

The exhibition has been presented first at Foam in 2011, and has since traveled 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 shows in China, new work 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.

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. In 2015 Foam will be presenting the work of talented Chinese artists working in the field of photography today in Amsterdam.