FONTANA AMSTERDAM
Claudy Jongstra | Gerbrand Burger | Mirte van Laarhoven
AN ENCOUNTER: MATERIALS, NATURE AND TIME
Galerie Fontana is proud to present a special exhibition centred on the work of Claudy Jongstra. Her monumental textile works are far more than compelling objects; they are the result of an integrated practice in which art, ecology, biodiversity and craftsmanship are inseparably intertwined. Through a practice that brings together the care for biodiversity, local ecosystems and centuries-old craft traditions, Jongstra demonstrates how art can contribute to a more sustainable and conscious relationship between humanity and nature.
Alongside her work, Galerie Fontana brings together two artists whose distinctive practices explore related fundamental questions. Mirte van Laarhoven and Gerbrand Burger share Jongstra's fascination with the expressive power of materials, the beauty of imperfection and the continuous transformations that characterise the natural world.
From different perspectives, the three artists engage with contemporary developments in which material, craftsmanship and ecological awareness have once again assumed a central role. Here, it is not only the finished image that matters; process, provenance and the life cycle of materials themselves are integral to the meaning and relevance of the artwork.
They are united by a fundamental trust in the act of making and by the conviction that art can transform the way we see. Rather than seeking to master or merely represent nature, they work with it, revealing its processes and inviting us to rediscover the intrinsic value of the living world. Material is never simply a medium; it carries memory, time and meaning. Wool, wood, earth, pigment and other natural elements tell stories of growth, decay, stillness and interconnectedness.
This exhibition is conceived as a dialogue. Together, the three artists create a space where craftsmanship, imagination and ecological awareness converge. Their works reinforce one another, reveal unexpected connections and invite visitors to contemplate the interplay between humanity, nature and matter, while reflecting on both the vulnerability and the resilience of the world around us.
About Claudy Jongstra
Claudy Jongstra (NL, 1963) is known worldwide for her monumental textile artworks and architectural installations, with organic surfaces and vibrant colours that reflect Jongstra’s masterful innovations in the ancient techniques of wool felting and plant-based dyeing. Claudy Jongstra’s oeuvre, often installed in large public spaces, is also represented within many international museums and institutions as well as private and corporate collections.
For more than three decades, Claudy Jongstra has created textile artworks that reimagine systems of production, driven by a deep respect for the interwoven relations between natural materials, biodiverse ecologies, local communities, and intergenerational knowledge. Committed to the preservation and activation of natural and cultural heritage, Claudy Jongstra’s signature artworks and architectural installations are handcrafted with regenerative wool and biodynamic plant-based colours that revitalize the connection between visual beauty, material quality and ecological vitality.
As Jongstra’s artistic practice expands, so too does the impact on her region. Collaborating with local farms, schools, universities and social initiatives, and drawing on a deep respect for the interwoven narratives of people, land, and tacit knowledge, Jongstra actively reimagines and revitalizes the local landscape from monocultural production toward a more diverse, inclusive, and ecologically-just model.
Jongstra’s oeuvre is included in many international museums as well as private and corporate collections such as the MoMA, NYC; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Cooper Hewitt Design Museum, NYC; LACMA Museum, Los Angeles; Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden; Limburgs Museum, Venlo; TextielMuseum, Tilburg; Centraal Museum, Utrecht; RISD Museum, Providence; SFMoMA, San Francisco; Rijksmuseum Twenthe, Enschede; Fries Museum, Leeuwarden; Gemeentemuseum, The Hague; Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati; Triodos Bank Art Collection and Akzo Nobel Art Collection. Furthermore, her work has been exhibited at the 7th Architectural Biennale of Sao Paulo, Sao Paolo, Brazil; Museum De Lakenhal; TextielMuseum, Tilburg, NL; 13th Architecture Biennale, Venice, Italy; and the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, NYC, USA.
About Mirte van Laarhoven
Dutch artist Mirte van Laarhoven (NL 1986) explores the subtle interactions between man and nature through creations that blend poetry and eco-responsibility. Her artistic approach is based on meticulous observation of ecosystems and a quest for a more harmonious dialogue with natural elements. Born and raised in the Netherlands, it struck her how deeply the desire to shape nature is rooted in Dutch genes. By embedding herself for longer periods of time in various landscapes, both close to home and abroad, alternative ways to reconnect with our natural environment arose. Her work taps into these pivotal moments where seemingly forgotten senses reappeared.
Working mainly with sustainable materials and organic forms, Van Laarhoven strives to reveal the intrinsic value of landscapes while questioning their fragility and destruction. The process of shaping the work doesn’t emerge in a single movement, but through patience and perseverance, with room for what presents itself during the process. Her works, often immersive and sensory, invite viewers to slow down, listen and reconnect with different forms of life. Her works are often an invitation to be completed by the landscape over time. Her approach demonstrates how art can play a pivotal role in the ecological discourse, inspiring both awareness and action towards environmental sustainability.
Mirte van Laarhoven studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture and the Pratt Institute in New York. She won the NLDelta Challenge with Underwater Forest, she received an honorable mention at the Archiprix 2018 and was awarded a talent grant from Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industries, and a development grand from both Mondriaanfonds, Cultuurfonds and Stichting Stokroos. She is an alumnus of the EKWC ceramic residency program (2021, 2022, 2024) and the Jan van Eyck Academy (2023-2024), and the founder of Living Landscapes.
Mirte’s work has been shown at RADIUS Center for Contemporary Art and Ecology (Delft 2024), Brutus Artist driven playground (Rotterdam 2023), The AkzoNobel Art Foundation (Amsterdam 2023), The IJssel Biennial (Zwolle 2023), The International Architectural Biennial (Rotterdam 2022), Limburg Biennial (Venray 2024), Kunstloc Brabant (LocHal Tilburg 2022), Artphy (Onstwedde 2025), Arts et Jardins festival Haut de France (Amiens 2025), CAN REON festival (Tiana 2025) and Odapark (Venray 2026).
About Gerbrand Burger
Gerbrand Burger (NL 1976) is based in Amsterdam. He grew up in Driebergen, The Netherlands, studied Political Science and Language and Culture of Latin America at Leiden University, fine arts at Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and School of Visual Arts and Cooper Union in New York. From 2006-2008 he was a resident at artist institute De Ateliers in Amsterdam. Subsequently he did residencies in Japan, Turkey and the Netherlands, and he worked at Frans Masereel Centrum in Belgium, ceramics residency EKWC and Pompgemaal Den Helder.
“I am a sculptor living in a wooden house in Amsterdam that I designed and built myself, across the water from the city centre. I work in a studio coöperative that I built with some friends in the harbor area, with my woodworking equipment and a generous stockpile of seasoned, local wood at hand. I have always loved being in a wood workshop, and now I can be there everyday! I love the process of making, that’s where my visual thinking happens, with my brain extending into my fingers. I really enjoy touching and shaping natural materials and through the making I tell the many stories of trees, transience and our contradictory relation to the living world we are part of.
Wood and clay are the materials I shape to my ideas and I make them into sculptures and objects, often with traits of furniture, including picture frames and vitrines. Visual sources vary from the shape of a puddle in an Irish limestone landscape, a gasket found in an online shop, a cutoff piece from the studio floor. In my outdoor sculptures you’ll find rustic trestles and Donald Judd chair knock-offs rotting in the forest, combined with solid, wooden books and wooden panels in exuberant shapes. I’m using drawing to sketch a rough idea of a sculpture, after which I’m immediately picking up wood and hand tools to draw the work out into the physical world. I’m outsourcing parts of the making to automated cutting or shaping, to feel and see more sharply what working by hand means today. In my practice, I deliberately present ‘the human’ as an equal part of this living world, and why, for this reason, I also embrace the transience of my work through the use of natural and organic materials.
With my initiative Thinking Forest Foundation I’m expanding my work into the forest, forging connections with other makers and thinkers, with trees and with all of the living world.”
Burgers work has been shown in solo presentations at C&H Gallery (Objects From the Outside, Amsterdam, 2016), Kunstvereniging Diepenheim (Unhide All, Diepenheim, 2019), Pitcairn Museum of Contemporary Art (Exhibition Continues Upstairs, Groningen, 2020) and Bellyditcham Project Space (From a River to the Room, 2021, Amsterdam), Galleria Sculptor (Studio Furniture, Helsinki, 2022) and in group presentations at Maison van Doesburg (Coup de Foudre, 2017, Paris), Big Art (2018, Amsterdam) Lustwarande (2024, Tilburg), Kunstverein (2024, Amsterdam) CODA Museum (2024, Apeldoorn) and Malva Museum (2025, Lahti). He worked as scenographer for various theatre productions, for Holland Festival and theatres in the Netherlands, Belgium and the United States. His short films have been show at numerous festivals worldwide. Gerbrand is the founding director of Thinking Forest Foundation and initiator and founding board member of Square 28 studio cooperative in Amsterdam
Saturday 5 September 2026 - Saturday 14 November 2026
Galerie Fontana Amsterdam, will be closed for the summer from 8 July through 4 September.
The gallery remains open by appointment during this period.
For an overview of the available works click HERE
FONTANA AMSTERDAM
OPENING HOURS
Wednesday - Saturday
13.00 - 18.00
For an appointment outside opening hours:
+31 (0)20 22 3 88 33
FONTANA BRUSSELS
Awaken Love
Solo Exhibition Claudy Jongstra
Claudy Jongstra is renowned worldwide as a leading female artist for her textile artworks and architectural installations, which draw from her multifaceted approach, uniting artistry and ecological stewardship within a profound and enduring artist-activist vision.
In this solo exhibition, Awaken Love, Claudy Jongstra articulates a profound commitment to ecological consciousness. Each work invites viewers to reconnect with the natural world, awakening a renewed sense of care, while simultaneously functioning as an urgent call to protect and sustain our fragile ecosystem. The fortitude and resilience of the biotic communities from which these works emerge are materially and conceptually embedded within each tapestry.
Claudy operates from a self-sufficient studio and has a completely sustainable no-waste working process. In this way, she wants to contribute to enriching the soil and feeding the bees, thus helping to increase the biodiversity of the region. Considering the materiality of her practice, symmetry is drawn between the shell-like qualities of wool, ideally providing a soft, warm natural cocoon-like protection in which we can feel safe. Before the artist can start felting, all kinds of processes are involved to prepare the woollen fibres, such as carefully picking it clean and washing the raw wool and carding it to obtain smooth wads of silken soft fibres. In Claudy’s dedication to the practice and production of each work, the act of safeguarding is a narrative that has been strongly woven into each piece.
Claudy Jongstra produces artworks that are both formally accomplished as well as strongly committed to offering food for thought for a better future. Jongstra is an environmental activist. As Jongstra’s artistic practice expands, so too does the impact on her region. Collaborating with local farms, schools, universities and social initiatives, and drawing on a deep respect for the interwoven narratives of people, land, and tacit knowledge, Jongstra actively reimagines and revitalises the local landscape from monocultural production toward a more diverse, inclusive, and ecologically-just model.
With this solo exhibition of Claudy Jongstra, we hope to combine both the practical and fantastical in communicating our position in the current climate crisis. We hope to inspire viewers to be aware of their own accountability, as well as to consider that ideation is non-linear. Perhaps the voice of this presentation is a hopeful one, but that is for the viewer to decide.
CLAUDY JONGSTRA
Claudy Jongstra is known worldwide for her monumental textile artworks and architectural installations, with organic surfaces and vibrant colours that reflect Jongstra’s masterful innovations in the ancient techniques of wool felting and plant-based dyeing. Claudy Jongstra’s oeuvre, often installed in large public spaces, is also represented within many international museums and institutions as well as private and corporate collections.
For more than two decades, Claudy Jongstra has created textile artworks that reimagine systems of production, driven by a deep respect for the interwoven relations between natural materials, biodiverse ecologies, local communities, and intergenerational knowledge. Committed to the preservation and activation of natural and cultural heritage, Claudy Jongstra’s signature artworks and architectural installations are handcrafted with regenerative wool and biodynamic plant-based colours that revitalize the connection between visual beauty, material quality and ecological vitality.
In 2001, Jongstra established her studio in Friesland, a rural northern province of The Netherlands, where she also developed a biodynamic farm at De Kreake in Húns with partner Claudia Busson, cultivating dyers plants and collecting generic seed for future propagation. Jongstra sources wool, her primary artistic medium, from a local flock of rare, indigenous Drenthe Heath sheep (the oldest breed in Northern Europe). This radical soil-to- soil philosophy, no-waste approach and inclusive way of collaborating creates a vibrant, community-based and completely sustainable process culminating in Claudy Jongstra’s charismatic artworks.
As Jongstra’s artistic practice expands, so too does the impact on her region. Collaborating with local farms, schools, universities and social initiatives, and drawing on a deep respect for the interwoven narratives of people, land, and tacit knowledge, Jongstra actively reimagines and revitalizes the local landscape from monocultural production toward a more diverse, inclusive, and ecologically-just model
Wednesday 22 April - Saturday 25 July 2026
Galerie Fontana Brussels, will be closed for the summer from 29 July through 27 August.
For an overview of the available works click HERE
FONTANA BRUSSELS
OPENING HOURS
Thursday - Saturday
11.00 - 18.00
For an appointment outside opening hours:
+31 (0)20 22 3 88 33
