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Vrijdag 13:00 - 18:00 Zaterdag 13:00 - 18:00

The Merchant House

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Nederland
Amsterdam
The Merchant House

Curated gallery shows of exceptional contemporary art to collect, presented in a 17th-century canal house in Amsterdam.

The Merchant House (TMH) presents contemporary art projects with sales of art as a funding strategy. Each project, curated by 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 Clo

se, Carolee Schneemann, Hilarius Hofstede, Craigie Horsfield, Judit Reigl, Pino Pinelli, and John Coplans, 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.

28/05/2026

TOMORROW—OPENING
New Group Show: Fragments
Featuring Pino Pinelli, Elsa Tomkowiak, Zhu Hong, and Sylvie Bonnot
Opening—Friday 29 May, 18:00-20:00

We look forward to welcoming you tomorrow at our new summer exhibition featuring Pino Pinelli, Elsa Tomkowiak, Zhu Hong, Sylvie Bonnot, and André Stempfel.

Three French women artists—Elsa Tomkowiak, Zhu Hong, and Sylvie Bonnot— first joined TMH in our Making Things Happen cycle (2017–2019), which focused on the material history of the art object and experimentation among young artists. Fragments includes Tomkowiak’s Zip (2021), a wall of painted color composed of six oversized zip bags—her take on an unexpected alternative to canvas, a household “commodity” in this case.

🖼 Elsa Tomkowiak
Albedo 100, 2017
Pounded acrylic on found foam, 5 elements
200 x 106 x 23 cm

27/05/2026

THIS FRIDAY—OPENING
New Group Show: Fragments
Featuring Pino Pinelli, Elsa Tomkowiak, Zhu Hong, and Sylvie Bonnot
Friday 29 May, 18:00-20:00

Join us at the festive opening of our new group show at TMH!

The project takes its inspiration from artist Pino Pinelli’s signature series. Neither entirely painting nor sculpture, his works unfold across walls in small, color-saturated units. The walls—those rigid partitions, frameworks of “everyspace”—become an area of free play, inviting us, as Pinelli suggested, to touch the works and join him in his art.

🖼 Pino Pinelli
Piturra GR., 2009
Mixed media, 2 elements
33 cm (diameter), each

18/05/2026

SAVE THE DATE
New Group Show: Fragments
Featuring Pino Pinelli, Elsa Tomkowiak, Zhu Hong, and Sylvie Bonnot
Opening—Friday 29 May, 18:00-20:00

Our summer exhibition Fragments and the corresponding theme The Merchant House / Your House reflect on how artworks occupy spaces—from public to private, from gallery to home. Featuring works by TMH’s artists—Pino Pinelli (IT, 1938–2024), Elsa Tomkowiak (FR, b. 1981), Zhu Hong (CN, b. 1975), and Sylvie Bonnot (FR, b. 1982)—it engages the architectural legacy of the Amsterdam canal house, suggestions of domestic decor, and TMH’s programming history.

“The Merchant House originally presented these artists’ first solo projects in Amsterdam. The group exhibition returns to Pino Pinelli’s proposition for contemporary painting: ‘As with my third eye, I would like to reach the atomic substance of form—an element of strength and constitution for a different kind of painting.’” —Marsha Plotnitsky and Pino Pinelli, also cited in TMH’s catalogue Pino Pinelli: Disseminations (2017).

🖼 Pino Pinelli
Pittura R, 1999
Mixed media
51 x 54 cm

07/05/2026

Throwback to On the Subject of Art—A Dinner Party, in an Art-Critical Mode #2.

Across four Thursdays this spring and summer, our new series of dinner parties explores Context, Concept, Coincidence, and Consequence in relation to art—bringing together a small group of guests around a shared table.

This dinner party series is devoted to gallery audiences of different backgrounds and interests. Each event—fusing participation and attention, contemplation and conversation—aims to illuminate the impact of uncompromising, unprecedented art.

In between curating the exhibitions at TMH, Marsha Plotnitsky writes essays on art. This is also an invitation to share the tools behind her thinking.

We look forward to welcoming you to our next Dinner Party on 28 May—email us to purchase a ticket: [email protected]

01/05/2026

TONIGHT—FINISSAGE
André Stempfel: The Merchant House, Your House
Friday 1 May, 18:00-20:00

We look forward to seeing you all at the finissage of our current exhibition André Stempfel, and a screening of Stempfel’s artist’s video Portes Interdites [Forbidden Doors].

A distinguished French artist, an undisputed authority on the monochrome, a hands-on inventor, André Stempfel (b. 1930) has undoubtedly given us new proof of the monochrome’s longevity and artistic force. Stempfel’s timeless geometries in radiant yellow—his yellow monochromes—enter a lived-in environment, only to decontextualize. TMH transforms its appearance for this show: sofas, chairs, cabinets, and lamps settle in among the works, inviting visitors to linger, lounge, and mingle in their company.

📸 Image: Arjen Veldt
From the opening of our current show, André Stempfel—The Merchant House, Your House, TMH, 2025.

29/04/2026

THIS FRIDAY—FINISSAGE
André Stempfel: The Merchant House, Your House
Friday 1 May, 18:00-20:00

Join us for the finissage of our current exhibition André Stempfel, and a screening of Stempfel’s artist’s video Portes Interdites [Forbidden Doors].

🖼️ André Stempfel
3 présentoir, 1990
Acrylic and vinyl paint on wood, several elements
150 x 150 cm

16/04/2026

Don’t miss your chance to see our current show André Stempfel: The Merchant House, Your House. On view till 26 April.

📸 Image: Arjen Veldt

08/04/2026

André Stempfel (1930, FR/CH) is known as an iconoclastic reinterpreter of geometric abstraction. After he lost his works in a fire in 1970, his practice centered on the visual language of the monochrome, primarily in yellow, and he extended his work to urban sculpture. Stempfel was already a determined painter at the age of 10 and chose art as his métier at the age of 17. He has been part of the international art scene from the late 1960s, showing in museums and galleries in Paris and abroad, and becoming an honorary member of the international MADI movement in 1989.

📸 Image: Arjen Veldt
From of our current show, André Stempfel-The Merchant House, Your House, TMH, 2025.

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28/03/2026

Last week, with a small group of guests around a shared table we had a great start of our new series of On the Subject of Art—A Dinner Parties, in an Art-Critical Mode which explore Context, Concept, Coincidence, and Consequence in relation to art. Thanks to everyone who joined us!

We look forward to seeing you at our next Dinner Party on April 16.

06/03/2026

A different take on yellow… see Van Gogh, see André Stempfel…

Our current show is extended through April to celebrate the rites of spring, while the Van Gogh Museum is inviting visitors to see their new show: Yellow. Beyond Van Gogh’s Colour

Visit TMH to see André Stempfel’s timeless geometries in radiant yellow—his “yellow monochromes”—enter a lived-in environment, but only to decontextualize. Ludic, acrobatic, spectacular, they unsettle common viewpoints.

Adres

Herengracht 254
Amsterdam
1016BV

Openingstijden

Vrijdag	13:00 - 18:00
Zaterdag	13:00 - 18:00

Telefoon

+31208455955

Website

http://www.merchanthouse.nl/

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