Installation views
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Atelier Van Lieshout presents Nikè, a new body of sculptural works that reflect on strength, failure, and the role of fate. Using industrial materials, the works take the form of structures and objects that explore systems of power, control, and survival. The exhibition unfolds in parellel with an exhibition by Mounir Eddib and will open on April 18th, 2026.
Official Opening:
Date: Saturday, April 18
Time: 3:00–5:00 PM
Location: Galerie Ron Mandos, Prinsengracht 282, Amsterdam
Please RSVP via Eventbrite using the button below.
RSVP hereNikè
Above the lingering battlefield, Nikè, the winged goddess of victory, observes the world below. The landscape bears traces of those who fought for their ideals and their gods; promises and whispered prayers flicker in their wake.
Within this territory, Atelier Van Lieshout presents a new series of works. Set within an imagined archaeological field, the sculptures seem to rise from the earth itself, born out of plaster. The remnants are fragmentary. Limbs are missing, bodies reduced to hollow shells in the form of armour. The work is an ode to warriors, men and women who fought for their convictions. The exhibition echoes Atelier Van Lieshout’s enduring fascination with contemporary notions of heroism, courage, and unconditional sacrifice.
Nikè explores the tension between exhaustion and renewal. Where the body decays, fertile ground for creation emerges. New life is kneaded from plaster and gradually reveals itself, rising from the walls. The gallery unfolds into a battlefield, at once birthing ground and afterlife: a place where immaculate soil is born from the ashes of bygone eras. It is a world in which Nikè reigns and her idol rises from plaster.
With the presentation of this new series of plaster sculptures, Atelier Van Lieshout evokes a long-standing tradition in which the material serves as a vehicle for experimentation and expression, akin to the plaster torsos of Louise Bourgeois and the crawling figures of Wilhelm Lehmbruck. Where art history has often relegated plaster models to a preparatory role, subordinate to monuments in bronze or marble, Atelier Van Lieshout elevates plaster to its final form.
The exhibition juxtaposes these plaster works with black polyurea figures from 2008. These sack-like sculptures recall a primitive shape, half natural, half manmade. They have an outline that vaguely resembles remnants of a human shape or a body. Like a fossil, these works are a semblance of a pre-historic presence or may be seen as ancient rock formations or volcanic stone.
