Kloveniersburgwal 95 - Upstream Gallery

About Upstream Gallery

Upstream Gallery, established in 2003, has quickly gained a credible international reputation among collectors, art institutions and critics, and is a perfect example of Amsterdam’s internationally renowned contribution to contemporary art.

With a focus on radical, engaged, conceptual and digital art, Upstream Gallery brings pioneering and critical work from over 20 artists from the Netherlands and abroad. Having worked with artists focussing on digital mediums for the past ten years, Upstream Gallery is currently at the forefront of the Dutch and

international digital artscene.Since September 2015 Upstream is situated in a monumental 17th-century city palace in Amsterdam’s historic city center. The ground floor consists of two exhibition spaces, office space and a private-viewing room which is used as an extended exhibition space and private showroom. The iconic grand canal house, known as the Poppenhuis (Doll House), was built by renowned architect Philips Vingboons in 1642 and is one of his major works. With its sleek, classical facade it draws much attention among the many step-gables in the area.

Poppenhuis

The Poppenhuis bears its name from the Poppen family (1545–1699), a prestigious family from Amsterdam. In 1642, Joannes Poppen commissioned the Poppenhuis to be build instead of the former De Gulden Steur, which his grandfather, Jan Poppen, had built in 1601.

Jan Poppen (1545–1616) migrated from Germany to Amsterdam without any belongings. Over time he developed into a prosperous merchant, and co-founder of the VOC (‘United East India Company’). This Dutch, colonial, trading company became the world’s largest commercial enterprise of the 17th century. After his passing in 1616, Jacob Poppen, Jan’s son, inherited this tremendous estate.

Jacob Poppen (1576–1624), fourty years at the time, was alderman and three times mayor of the city of Amsterdam. Only eight years after his fathers passing, his life comes to an end. He was the wealthiest man in all of Amsterdam at that moment in time, which was all inherited by Joannes Poppen (1617–1654).

Joannes couldn’t follow the footsteps of his father, as he had converted to Roman Catholicism. Catholics didn’t have to be scared to lose their assets in the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands, however, they were excluded from important political positions.

This was also the case for Philips Vingboons (1607– 1678), who was the architect that Joannes commissioned to reconstruct De Gulden Steur into the hôtel particulier we know today. As a Roman Catholic architect, he wouldn’t get any assignments from the state. However, he was a much sought-after architect in high Catholic circles, and most probably one of the first architects in The Netherlands, that could live from his craft. Vingboons is also known as the inventor of the Amsterdam “neck gable”. The Poppen House is one of the major works of Vingboons and with its sleek, classical facade, draws much attention among the many crow-stepped gables in the area. The house was not, as per usual, a combination of a merchant– and warehouse, but served mainly domestic and representation purposes.

With the conversion to Catholicism, their role as a public figure within the Republic evaporated, and as Joannes didn’t have any offspring, the Poppen family ceased to exist.

Upstream Gallery lay-out Poppenhuis Ground Floor

Jeroen Jongeleen Grey Zone Tactics Black Ops, White Noise (2025)

Exhibition Space I

Dennis Rudolph Das Kunstwerk Der Zukunft (2023)

Exhibition Space I

Kévin Bray The Collective Shadow (2023)

Exhibition Space I

Ronald Ophuis ANTIDOTE (2024)

Exhibition Space I

Group exhibition The Sweet Escape (2025)

Exhibition Space I

Group exhibition The Sweet Escape (2025)

Jen Liu ELECTROPORE (2022)

Exhibition Space I - Cove

Frank Ammerlaan Particles of Dust (2017)

Exhibition Space II overlooking Space I

Jan Robert Leegte No Content: Contemplations on Software (2023)

Exhibition Space II

León & Cociña Burials (2022)

Exhibition Space II, transformed into cinema looked onto from Space I

Noor Nuyten & Marinus Boezem Reading a Wave (2021)

Exhibition Space II,

Jan Robert Leegte Sculpting the Internet (2017)

Exhibition Exhibition Space Space IIII

Rafaël Rozendaal Complex Computational Compositions (2016)

Exhibition Space II

VIP lunch Opening group exhibition The Sweet Escape (2025)

VIP lunch Opening duo exhibition Reading a Wave (2021)

VIP lunch Opening group exhibition The Sweet Escape (2025)

VIP lunch Opening duo exhibition Das Kunstwerk Der Zukunft (2023)

Daichi Takagi Wanderer (2024)

Private Viewing Space

Jan Robert Leegte Mountain and Drop Shadows (2023)

Private Viewing Space

Raymond Barion Upstream Focus exhibition (2022)

Private Viewing Space

Noor Nuyten Drag and Drop (2022)

Amol K Patil The Shadow of Luster (2024)

Private Viewing Space

Harm van den Dorpel Quantizer (2025)

Private Viewing Space

Kloveniersburgwal 95 1011 KB Amsterdam t. +31 (0)20 4284284 e. info@upstreamgallery.nl