With: Bastienne Kramer, Meis Vranken, Jan Hoek, Guda Koster, Mariken Wessels, Joseph Hughes and Carmen Schabracq.
Opening: October 3rd 17:00 on show until Nov 8.
A group exhibition co-curated by artist Carmen Schabracq.
Gallery van Fanny Freytag is turning 2 and what better way to celebrate than by opening the upcoming exhibition ‘KISSAMBUSHED’, on Friday October 3 at 17:00.
The exhibition takes its inspiration from Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven: the fearless performance artist, poet, and muse to the avant-garde, who only now begins to receive recognition for her groundbreaking work. Our gallery proudly carries her name, and with this show we channel her radical spirit into the present.
KISSAMBUSHED explores the body, gender, and playfulness in art, echoing Elsa’s dadaist defiance while reflecting on today’s social and cultural tensions. Curated by Carmen Schabracq and Gallery van Fanny Freytag, the show both honors her legacy and brings her fearless spirit into today’s world.
Bastienne Kramer (1961, Netherlands) creates sculptures and installations that transform everyday objects into manipulated environments. Drawing on clichés from popular culture, her work reveals the conservative and often sexist undertones hidden within both fast consumer goods and traditional craft. By reframing these objects, Kramer exposes how culture preserves regressive ideologies under the guise of progress or timelessness.
Carmen Schabracq (1988, Netherlands) works across painting, sculpture, ceramics, textiles, costume and performance. Masks are central to her practice, used to explore shifting identities and collective memory. Drawing from mythology, folklore and feminist perspectives, her colourful works weave together playfulness, tactility, and narratives of motherhood and intergenerational ties.
Guda Koster (1957, Netherlands) moves between fashion, sculpture, photography and performance. Her textile-based works often resemble clothing, sometimes worn and staged in photographs where she is her own model. Since 2016 she has collaborated with Frans van Tartwijk on public performances, expanding her practice into sculptural figures that enter everyday space.
Jan Hoek (1984, Netherlands) is an artist and writer whose work celebrates outsiders by creating collaborations that reframe their stories. From Nairobi taxi drivers to Amsterdam dreamers, his projects transform overlooked individuals into protagonists. In Hoek’s world, so-called “normal” people are the strangers, while outsiders become the central figures.
Joseph Hughes (1986, UK) reworks familiar objects into unsettling new forms. Playing with scale, language and perception, he transforms the ordinary into ambiguous, layered arrangements. His works occupy the space between personal and universal, offering no clear answers but prompting viewers to decode and reconsider everyday signs and symbols.
Mariken Wessels (1963, Netherlands) makes artist’s books, films, photo series and installations that intertwine found and self-made material. Her projects probe the boundary between public and private, exploring the body as a medium of expression. Trained as an actress before turning to visual arts, she builds layered narratives around intimacy and identity.
Meis Vranken (1997, Netherlands) is a multidisciplinary artist working with painting, video, sculpture, performance and music. Her recent projects include the film De Ochtend and the ongoing performance Flat News. Vranken focuses on everyday subjects—such as dishes or trash cans—approaching them with a poetic, philosophical lens that reveals hidden meaning.
