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Marjolein de Groen
Marjolein de Groen: new views and insights
Image: Rendering ShowDepot DE.GROEN; architectenbureau Space Encounters Office for Architecture; verwachte opening 2025
Introduction: Manuela Klerkx | Text: Marjolein de Groen
The origin of the DE.GROEN Collection is the story of the artist couple Marjolein de Groen and Peter Jordaan. In addition to being 'artists on hold' – as they jokingly call themselves – Marjolein and Peter are art buyers with a mission. Their mission is to ‘show the unseen’. So, in 2017, they decided to open their private collection to the public in a specially designed, fascinating bank building (built in 1905 in typical transitional architecture with elements of Art Nouveau and rationalism) on Weverstraat in Arnhem. Until now, visitors have been able to admire their collection by appointment only. The numerous exhibitions, collection presentations and events they have organised over the past seven years have provided a clear overview of contemporary art in the Netherlands. The DE.GROEN Collection on Weverstraat has grown into a lively art centre where many have been introduced to both well-known and unknown talents in an impressive and hospitable setting.
“We love sharing our ideas and thoughts about art with others, not because we know better or are right, but because art and talking about art can sometimes yield new insights into all kinds of things – no matter how small or insignificant those things may be. But you can also ignore us and wander through the house on your own if you prefer.”
Marjolein de Groen and Peter Jordaan
After seven years on Weverstraat, it was time for a change. Marjolein and Peter are now busy with their new venture: an industrial building of stately sobriety where everything revolves around art and the approximately 1,200 square meters – spread over four floors – has been convincingly minimised into a closed cube by the architects at Space Encounters, which only heightens curiosity about what happens inside. The design is now in its final stages and under the name ShowDepot DE.GROEN, Marjolein and Peter will be opening their collection and depot to the public sometime in 2025.
They summarised the past years in May 2024 with the publication You Can Say What You Want, Everyone Sees Something Different, a richly illustrated book as a “kaleidoscopic rollercoaster full of stories and pictures about the how and why, about ownership, management and responsibility, but also about Ricardo’s drill, Goudzwaard’s panel and a real art review of the paintings of Marloes Roeper and Gerda Ten Thije and much more.”
We will have to make do with this publication until 2025. If you are not yet familiar with the DE.GROEN Collection, you can get acquainted with one of the founders, Marjolein de Groen, through this collection she has compiled.
“We are interested in the story, the work process and the artist’s attitude towards his or her own work. You only find this out by visiting studios. These are valuable encounters. A decision is made to either buy or not to buy. This is how the collection has grown to around 400 works, from minuscule to space-filling, from painting and photography to video and from 2D to spatial.”
– Marjolein de Groen and Peter Jordaan
Marjolein de Groen: new views and insights
“Our private collection of contemporary art reflects everything happening in the art world.” Marjolein de Groen and Peter Jordaan
In Arnhem, you are fortunate that nature is always nearby. I start each day with a walk through the woods or over the heath along either narrow meandering paths or long tree-lined one, sometimes mossy and dark, other times with magnificent views of the horizon, of old trees standing as beacons in the landscape and along the river. The walk and everything I encounter set the stage for the day ahead and brings an end to yesterday. In times of major changes and decisions, these walks are indispensable. Creating a collection is a long-distance walk without beginning or end. Sometimes, an artwork behaves similarly to a view, a river or an old tree. Creating a collection and taking a walk happens intuitively for me, just like this time. As cliché as it may sound, the works in this collection give me new views and insights.
Introduction: Manuela Klerkx | Text: Marjolein de Groen
The origin of the DE.GROEN Collection is the story of the artist couple Marjolein de Groen and Peter Jordaan. In addition to being 'artists on hold' – as they jokingly call themselves – Marjolein and Peter are art buyers with a mission. Their mission is to ‘show the unseen’. So, in 2017, they decided to open their private collection to the public in a specially designed, fascinating bank building (built in 1905 in typical transitional architecture with elements of Art Nouveau and rationalism) on Weverstraat in Arnhem. Until now, visitors have been able to admire their collection by appointment only. The numerous exhibitions, collection presentations and events they have organised over the past seven years have provided a clear overview of contemporary art in the Netherlands. The DE.GROEN Collection on Weverstraat has grown into a lively art centre where many have been introduced to both well-known and unknown talents in an impressive and hospitable setting.
“We love sharing our ideas and thoughts about art with others, not because we know better or are right, but because art and talking about art can sometimes yield new insights into all kinds of things – no matter how small or insignificant those things may be. But you can also ignore us and wander through the house on your own if you prefer.”
Marjolein de Groen and Peter Jordaan
After seven years on Weverstraat, it was time for a change. Marjolein and Peter are now busy with their new venture: an industrial building of stately sobriety where everything revolves around art and the approximately 1,200 square meters – spread over four floors – has been convincingly minimised into a closed cube by the architects at Space Encounters, which only heightens curiosity about what happens inside. The design is now in its final stages and under the name ShowDepot DE.GROEN, Marjolein and Peter will be opening their collection and depot to the public sometime in 2025.
They summarised the past years in May 2024 with the publication You Can Say What You Want, Everyone Sees Something Different, a richly illustrated book as a “kaleidoscopic rollercoaster full of stories and pictures about the how and why, about ownership, management and responsibility, but also about Ricardo’s drill, Goudzwaard’s panel and a real art review of the paintings of Marloes Roeper and Gerda Ten Thije and much more.”
We will have to make do with this publication until 2025. If you are not yet familiar with the DE.GROEN Collection, you can get acquainted with one of the founders, Marjolein de Groen, through this collection she has compiled.
“We are interested in the story, the work process and the artist’s attitude towards his or her own work. You only find this out by visiting studios. These are valuable encounters. A decision is made to either buy or not to buy. This is how the collection has grown to around 400 works, from minuscule to space-filling, from painting and photography to video and from 2D to spatial.”
– Marjolein de Groen and Peter Jordaan
Marjolein de Groen: new views and insights
“Our private collection of contemporary art reflects everything happening in the art world.” Marjolein de Groen and Peter Jordaan
In Arnhem, you are fortunate that nature is always nearby. I start each day with a walk through the woods or over the heath along either narrow meandering paths or long tree-lined one, sometimes mossy and dark, other times with magnificent views of the horizon, of old trees standing as beacons in the landscape and along the river. The walk and everything I encounter set the stage for the day ahead and brings an end to yesterday. In times of major changes and decisions, these walks are indispensable. Creating a collection is a long-distance walk without beginning or end. Sometimes, an artwork behaves similarly to a view, a river or an old tree. Creating a collection and taking a walk happens intuitively for me, just like this time. As cliché as it may sound, the works in this collection give me new views and insights.
3 Éléments multimédias ᛫ 22 Oeuvres disponibles
3 Spectacles ᛫ 0 Points forts ᛫ 1 Recommandations
Edwin Zwakman, AKINCI
What do we see when we look out the window? The title At Night I See the Future does not suggest much good, as it’s hard to be optimistic at night. A view of a future that might come and the fear of it are encapsulated by the intense work of Edwin Zwakman. It offers a view of the future that may lie ahead, but also the fear that comes with it. In At Night I See the Future, the analogue model and digital presentation come together. I imagine a space with different windows looking out on the future.
What do we see when we look out the window? The title At Night I See the Future does not suggest much good, as it’s hard to be optimistic at night. A view of a future that might come and the fear of it are encapsulated by the intense work of Edwin Zwakman. It offers a view of the future that may lie ahead, but also the fear that comes with it. In At Night I See the Future, the analogue model and digital presentation come together. I imagine a space with different windows looking out on the future.
1 Éléments multimédias ᛫ 3 Oeuvres disponibles
6 Spectacles ᛫ 0 Points forts ᛫ 0 Recommandations
Marloes Roeper, Galerie Roger Katwijk
Marloes Roeper brings us back to the present, to images and landscapes we have all seen and know so well. She strips them down to an essence that overwhelms because it is so convincingly simple and precise that it almost startles. Every brushstroke is necessary; there is no brushstroke too many, nowhere is there doubt in the making. Marloes’ search and exploration lie not in the painting itself, but in the cutouts she creates, in what she wants to show us and what she leaves out. Marloes told me that she views painting a canvas as a sports match: preparation is essential, you have to be completely ready and then it’s do or die.
Marloes Roeper brings us back to the present, to images and landscapes we have all seen and know so well. She strips them down to an essence that overwhelms because it is so convincingly simple and precise that it almost startles. Every brushstroke is necessary; there is no brushstroke too many, nowhere is there doubt in the making. Marloes’ search and exploration lie not in the painting itself, but in the cutouts she creates, in what she wants to show us and what she leaves out. Marloes told me that she views painting a canvas as a sports match: preparation is essential, you have to be completely ready and then it’s do or die.
5 Éléments multimédias ᛫ 10 Oeuvres disponibles
2 Spectacles ᛫ 0 Points forts ᛫ 0 Recommandations
Jeroen Jongeleen, Upstream Gallery
Just looking at one of Jeroen Jongeleen’s works from the Running in Circles series gives you an enormous sense of freedom, a freedom that Jongeleen claims and that you realise as a viewer as his attempt to conquer the landscape progresses. Jongeleen runs endless circles through the history of the various landscapes of Northern Europe, seemingly effortlessly running through craters left by grenades in the landscape, over old fortifications and past memorials from WWI. In his video, Jongeleen connects temporality and transience with timelessness and infinity.
Just looking at one of Jeroen Jongeleen’s works from the Running in Circles series gives you an enormous sense of freedom, a freedom that Jongeleen claims and that you realise as a viewer as his attempt to conquer the landscape progresses. Jongeleen runs endless circles through the history of the various landscapes of Northern Europe, seemingly effortlessly running through craters left by grenades in the landscape, over old fortifications and past memorials from WWI. In his video, Jongeleen connects temporality and transience with timelessness and infinity.
7 Éléments multimédias ᛫ 3 Oeuvres disponibles
2 Spectacles ᛫ 2 Points forts ᛫ 0 Recommandations
Marike Schuurman, Bradwolff & Partners
Marike Schuurman seduces me with her gentle, poetic image, which raises all sorts of questions I cannot easily answer. What am I looking at? Are these chemical processes? Can another image be found in the picture? In Schuurman’s work, the subject and technique literally come together. Like a researcher, she analyses elements from the history of the landscape, such as the toxic, human footprint resulting from brown coal mining. Schuurman finds acidic water (where no life is possible), which she then uses to develop her Polaroids. The work calls us to account. The more you know, the more layered the work becomes. The Toxic series may be poetic, but it certainly doesn’t tell a gentle or beautiful story.
Marike Schuurman seduces me with her gentle, poetic image, which raises all sorts of questions I cannot easily answer. What am I looking at? Are these chemical processes? Can another image be found in the picture? In Schuurman’s work, the subject and technique literally come together. Like a researcher, she analyses elements from the history of the landscape, such as the toxic, human footprint resulting from brown coal mining. Schuurman finds acidic water (where no life is possible), which she then uses to develop her Polaroids. The work calls us to account. The more you know, the more layered the work becomes. The Toxic series may be poetic, but it certainly doesn’t tell a gentle or beautiful story.
2 Éléments multimédias ᛫ 5 Oeuvres disponibles
5 Spectacles ᛫ 3 Points forts ᛫ 2 Recommandations
Jan Robert Leegte, Upstream Gallery
The desire to go through life without material is an unattainable ideal that in some way represents the work of Robert Jan Leegte in my mind, especially this hallucinatory blue work from the JPEG series. It is at the very least remarkable how such a cold approach of codes and algorithms can bring about such great attraction. Leegte knows how to make ‘nothing’ visible. He offers us another route or connection than what exists in the digital world. You have no idea what you are looking at: is it close or far away? It is an endless space that you look at like a child lying on their back staring at an infinite, blue sky.
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The book can be ordered from the DE.GROEN Collection website while supplies last.
The desire to go through life without material is an unattainable ideal that in some way represents the work of Robert Jan Leegte in my mind, especially this hallucinatory blue work from the JPEG series. It is at the very least remarkable how such a cold approach of codes and algorithms can bring about such great attraction. Leegte knows how to make ‘nothing’ visible. He offers us another route or connection than what exists in the digital world. You have no idea what you are looking at: is it close or far away? It is an endless space that you look at like a child lying on their back staring at an infinite, blue sky.
_
The book can be ordered from the DE.GROEN Collection website while supplies last.