REFRESH #3
IMAGINE THE FUTURE
BLEACHERS
REFRESH #3 IMAGINE THE FUTURE
What does the future look like? And who actually decides that?
For the third edition of the biennial art manifestation Refresh Amsterdam, the Amsterdam Museum invites artists and the public to dream, think, and create together. In the exhibition, they share their wishes, expectations, and fantasies for the future. Refresh Amsterdam #3: Imagine the Future will be on view from July 11 to November 30, 2025, at the Amsterdam Museum on the Amstel.
The invited 15 leading artists create work around urgent themes that impact our shared future. From visual art and performances to photography, fictional archaeology, and speculative design.
They not only explore how art and creativity can help us imagine what lies ahead, but also call on us to actively co-shape the future. A work composed of children’s drawings of the future, an installation about the seeds and plants of tomorrow, or fictional archaeological discoveries — each piece highlights how the past, present, and future are interconnected.
This exhibition is part of the celebration of 750 years of Amsterdam. It is also the largest and final exhibition of the Amsterdam Museum at its Amstel 51 location.
Bleachers, 2025
Frank Ammerlaan (1979) creates patchwork paintings from sewn together pieces of cotton and linen. Some of the cloths were soaked by rain or soiled with dust particles and earth in the open air. In others he incorporated, meteorite particles, extraterrestrial matter from the beginnings of the Solar System. A refined color gradient emerged through a process of bleaching, similar to how colors naturally fade with prolonged exposure to sunlight. The fabrics therefore bear visible traces of the passage of time.
The series is inspired by the book Orbital by Samantha Harvey. She writes a poetic and philosophical story about planet Earth from the viewpoint of six astronauts inside an orbital space station. Ammerlaan zooms out, too, generating an artwork that depicts eternal processes on a cosmic scale. It’s all about the “bigger picture”: the realization that everything is forever changing and motion.
*By curator Nina Folkersma
Ammerlaam lives and works in Berlin. He graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam in 2007 and from the Royal College of Art in London in 2012. In 2012, Ammerlaan received the Royal Award for Modern Painting. Other prizes he has won include the Scheffer Prize (2013), the Land Securities Prize at the Royal College of Art (2012), the Doha Studio Art Prize (2012), and the Gerrit Rietveld Academy Painting Prize (2007).
Ammerlaan has had solo exhibitions at the Dordrechts Museum, the Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Calasetta in Italy, and at various international galleries such as Simões de Assis in Brazil and Upstream Gallery in Amsterdam. His work has been featured in several group exhibitions both in the Netherlands and abroad, including at White Cube Gallery in London, the Oscar Niemeyer Museum in Brazil, the KUMU Art Museum in Tallinn, Museum Catharijneconvent in Utrecht, Kunsthal in Rotterdam, and NEST in The Hague.
Ammerlaan's work is held in private and corporate collections as well as in museums such as the Centraal Museum in Utrecht, Kunstmuseum Den Haag, Museum Voorlinden, and the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam.
See the back of this PDF for the artist’s CV.
Frank Ammerlaan
Untitled (Bleachers series), 2025
Dust, dirt, meteorite particles on oxidized
cotton, linen
100 x 80 cm
Frank Ammerlaan
Untitled (Bleachers series), 2025
Dust, dirt, meteorite particles on oxidized cotton, linen
220 x 160 cm
140 x 190 cm
Frank Ammerlaan
Untitled (Bleachers series), 2025
Dust, dirt, meteorite particles on oxidized cotton, linen
Untitled (Bleachers series), 2025
Dust, dirt, meteorite particles on oxidized cotton, linen
120 x 100 cm
Frank Ammerlaan
CV Frank Ammerlaan
Frank Ammerlaan, Sassenheim, The Netherlands ’79
Lives and works in Berlin
Education MA Painting, Royal College of Art in London (grad. ‘12)
BA Fine Art, The Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam (grad. ‘07)
College of Wood- and Furniture making, Amsterdam (grad. ’02)
Awards: De Scheffer Award, Dordrechts Museum ’13, NL
Koninklijke Prijs voor vrije Schilderkunst, NL ’12, Land Securities Studio Award, Royal College of Art, London ’12
Doha Studio Art Prize ‘12
Gerrit Rietveld Academy Painting Prize ’07
email ammerlaanfrank@gmail.com
Tel. +491788705162
2025 -Refresh 3, Amsterdam Museum
-New New Babylon, Kunstmuseum, The Hague
-The Sweet Escape, Upstream Gallery
-Windfinder, Galerie Hartwich, Germany
2024 -Guardian, Upstream Gallery, Amsterdam, solo
-Solaris, We Like Art, The Netherlands
-Afterglow, Heden, The Hague, The Netherlands
-Positions 3, Alma Pearl Gallery, London
2023 -Arpa, Art Fair, São Paulo, Brazil, duo
-Mirror of Matter, Simoes de Assis Gallery, Brazil, solo -Rhinestone, curated by PS projectspace, Glue, Berlin -Mixed Feelings, Upstream Gallery, Amsterdam
-A celebration for the golden time, by Kura & Dior, São Paulo, Brazil
2022 -On The Road, Lage Egal, Berlin
-A Abstração é uma Invenção, Simoes de Assis Gallery, Brazil
-Mondrian Moves, Kunstmuseum Den Haag
-Upstream Focus, Body Armor, Upstream gallery, Amsterdam, solo
2021 -Heden Recollected, Heden, The Hague, The Netherlands
2020 -BODY ARMOR, Upstream Gallery, Amsterdam, solo -Matter shift, Simões de Assis Galeria de Arte, São Paulo, Brazil
-Iron Mountain,Simões de Assis Galeria de Arte,Curitiba, Brazil, solo
-‘SGABELLO COLLECTION: In Search of the Miraculous’, Project space On The Inside, NL
-Artissima Fondamenta, (online)
-Upstream Focus, Upstream Gallery, Amsterdam, solo
2019 -Iron Mountain, SIM Gallery, Sao Paulo, Brazil, solo
-Art Brussels, solo
-Trouble in Paradise, Kunsthal Rotterdam
-Out of Office, Kunstschatten uit bedrijven, Singer Laren
2018 -Wolvecampprijs, Hengelo, solo
-EXTENSION.NL | MODEL FOR CONSENSUS, Triumph Gallery, Moscow
-Avesso Viés, SIM Gallery, Sao Paulo, Brazil
-Shelter, Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht
-De Meest Eigentijdse Schilderijen Tentoonstelling, Dordrechts Museum
-Another Dimension, NEST, The Hague
2017 -Bienal de Curitiba, Oscar Niemeyer Museum, Brazil
-Jubilee exhibition Dordrechts Museum, De Scheffer Award, NL
-Particles of Dust, Upstream Gallery, Amsterdam, solo
-Drawing Biennial, Drawing Room, London
2016 -MOONLESS, Bosse & Baum Gallery, London, solo
-Sparkling like the surface of the ocean at night, Garage, Rotterdam
-Snipers Choir, SNAP Lion, France by PS Project Space
-Akzo Nobel Art Foundation, Amsterdam
-RESET II, Priska Pasquer, Cologne, Germany
2015 -Outside the wireframe, SIM Gallery, Brazil, solo
-From a painter’s perspective, Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam
-Transformer, Upstream Gallery, Amsterdam
-Desire of the Other, Annka Kultys Gallery, London
-BFA Boatos Gallery, Sao Paulo, Brazil
-Open Studio PIVO, Sao Paulo
-RESET I, Priska Pasquer Gallery, Cologne
-The extended arms of the Transom, David Risley Gallery, CPH, solo
-Drawing Biennial, Drawing Room, London
-Faith by Proxy, Upstream Gallery, Amsterdam, solo
-Absence, Looking for Hammershøi, David Risley gallery, Copenhagen
2014 -IDFA, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam
-ABC, Berlin, solo
-Alchemy, Nest, The Hague, NL
-KUMU Museum, Tallinn, Estonia
-Reforming Intervals, Laure Genillard, Hanway Place, London, solo
-Projections, Art Rotterdam
-Academy Now, Bologna, Italy
2013 -Dordrechts Museum, NL, solo
-Love Illumination, Upstream Gallery, Amsterdam
-‘Collectors’ Items # 5 – Studio System’ , The Dutch Embassy, London
-ArtInternational, Istanbul
-Open Cube, White Cube Gallery, Mason’s Yard, London
-Fondazione MACC Museo d’Arte Conteporanea, Calasetta, Italy, solo
-Every bird brings a different melody to the garden,Harrington Way,LDN
-Concrete Fragments, Morgan Concrete, London
-They died with their boots on, Teksas, Denmark by PS Project Shape
-The Armory Show, New York, Upstream Gallery, solo
-A+B, 2 P. show with Nathan Barlex, 4 windmill Street gallery, London
2012 -Painting without paint, David Risley Gallery, Copenhagen
-Day’s End, Upstream gallery, Amsterdam, solo
-Royal Award of Painting ‘12, Royal Palace, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
-Nature / Structure, Dutch design week
-PS, Co/Lab Los Angeles, United States
-Stereopsis, The Drawing Room, Tannery Arts, London
-Land of the Seven Moles, PS Projectspace Amsterdam, The Netherlands
-Graduation show, Royal College Of Art, London, United Kingdom
Guest Tutor: Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam, 2024
Frank Mohr Institute, Groningen, 2020
Royal College of Art, London, 2017
Monograph: Particles of Dust, 2017
Collections:
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Netherlands Ministry of Finance, The Netherlands Museum Voorlinden
Dordrechts Museum
Stedelijk Museum, Schiedam Centraal Museum, Utrecht
Kunstmuseum, Den Haag
DSM Art Collection
Kunstcollectie KPMG
Allen & Overy, NL
Akzo Nobel Art Foundation
KRC Collection, NL
The Brown Family Collection, NL
The Ekard Collection, NL
Heden, Den Haag
Heloisa and Amos Genish Collection , Brazil
Clemilda Thome Collection, Brazil
Ana and Guilherme Weege Collection, Brazil
Grants:
Artist Basic, Grant, Mondriaan Foundation, ‘23
Open Oproep Manifestatie, Mondriaan Foundation ’22
Corona-overbrugging, Mondriaan Foundation ‘21
Stichting Niemeijer Fonds ’17
Publicaties, Mondriaan Foundation ‘17
Studiebeurs Buitenland, Fonds BKVB ’10-‘12
Hendrik Muller Fonds ‘10
Startstipendium, Fonds BKVB ‘09
Stichting Niemeijer Fonds ‘09
