15 december 2025, Flor Linckens
From the V&A archive to Saatchi Gallery: nine Dutch artists in London
Until 12 January 2026, Saatchi Gallery in London presents work by nine Dutch artists. ‘Standing on the Shoulders of Giants II: A Unique Dialogue Between Past and Present’ places a specific focus on the work of women: Lily de Bont (NL=US Art), Margriet van Breevoort (NL=US Art), Bobbi Essers (Galerie Stigter Van Doesburg), Larissa Esvelt, Anya Janssen (TORCH Gallery), Audrey Large, Femmy Otten, Louise te Poele (Art Gallery O-68) and Bregje Sliepenbeek.
The exhibition was curated by artist and curator Louise te Poele and realised in collaboration with Saatchi Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum. For this project, the participating artists were granted access to the V&A’s Prints and Drawings Study Room, where they studied works by well-known and lesser-known women from different historical periods, women who often operated outside the canon in their own time. For instance, Louise te Poele drew inspiration from a work by Charlotte Horn Spier, while Lily de Bont responds to a print by Barbara Hepworth and Anya Janssens looked at a work by Bridget Riley. These encounters with the archive form the starting point for a series of new works developed specifically for this exhibition. Sometimes that response takes shape through form or material, sometimes through subject matter or a more intuitive recognition. The selected source works do not function as historical footnotes, but as living material. These encounters form the underlying layer of the exhibition and are presented alongside a number of existing works by the artists.
Louise te Poele reflects: 'There’s something deeply moving about how my fellow women artists respond to the voices of women before them — echoing, challenging, and continuing their legacy in ways that feel both intimate and radical.'
A video on the project’s Instagram channel shows the artists at work in the museum. Together with curator Dr Rosalind McKever and assistant curator Damiët Schneeweisz, they selected the works, which can be viewed by appointment in the museum’s Prints and Drawings Study Room on Wednesdays and Thursdays after contacting [email protected].
The exhibition follows the first edition of ‘Standing on the Shoulders of Giants’, which was shown at Saatchi Gallery in the spring of 2024 and brought together work by artists including Janine van Oene, Iriée Zamblé, Louise te Poele and Lisa Sebestikova. This second edition takes a closer look at the historical underrepresentation of women artists within museum collections. Even today, work by women is exhibited more often than it is actually acquired. The V&A’s collection demonstrates, however, that a stronger representation of work by women is indeed possible.
The exhibition at Saatchi Gallery offers an exceptional platform for the work of women artists on an international stage with a large audience and free admission. The participating artists represent different generations and disciplines, and the exhibition therefore does not follow a linear narrative. Painting, sculpture, photography, installation and digital forms are presented side by side, without a sense of hierarchy, in a dynamic spatial arrangement that unfolds across two galleries.
‘Standing on the Shoulders of Giants II’ is supported by the Mondriaan Fund, the SMAG Foundation and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the United Kingdom. The exhibition was opened by Paul Huijts, Ambassador of the Netherlands to the United Kingdom, with contributions from Damiët Schneeweisz and Louise te Poele.
