Lumen Travo Gallery

Lumen Travo Gallery Amsterdam based art gallery since 1985. Lumen Travo Gallery represents the following internationally acclaimed visual artists.

Otobong Nkanga, Thierry Oussou, Daniel de Paula, Matea Bakula, Milena Naef, Dennis Adams, Tiong Ang, Guillaume Bijl, Meschac Gaba, Dianne Hagen, Ni Haifeng, Rini Hurkmans, Andrea Blum, Franck Bragigand, Monali Meher, Stephen Willats, Kathe Burkhart, Claudia Cristóvão, Yvonne Dröge Wendel, Jimmy Durham, Michel François, Jean Bernard Koeman, Kristiina Koskentola, Marion Möller, Shirin Neshat, Jens Pfeifer, Ibrahim Quraishi, Hans Scholten, Margret Wibmer.

“The Crow Messengers”, a solo exhibition by Judith Westerveld has just opened in Cape Town’s .za. In this solo exhibiti...
13/03/2026

“The Crow Messengers”, a solo exhibition by Judith Westerveld has just opened in Cape Town’s .za.

In this solo exhibition, Westerveld presents a body of work based on 10 narratives told in the Southern African San languages |xam and !xun that form part of the Bleek and Lloyd Archive.

Through film, photocollages, prints, a sculptural installation, and an artist publication, Westerveld brings the ten narratives and the colonial history they harbour into the present, and offers a glimpse of the unique way in which the narrators saw the world.

On view in Ava Gallery until 23.04.26.

This exhibition has been made possible by the generous support of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and DutchCulture .nl. The artworks in this exhibition have been produced with the financial support of Amarte Fund , AFK (Amsterdam Fund for the Arts) , and Mondriaan Fund .

Last week we opened the final chapter of our 40 Years Anniversary exhibition. Big thank you to all the visitors, artists...
12/03/2026

Last week we opened the final chapter of our 40 Years Anniversary exhibition. Big thank you to all the visitors, artists and friends that made the evening truly special.

The exhibition is now on view until April 4 and not to be missed. Featuring many works that have shaped the story of this gallery.
With artists Dennis Adams, Tiong Ang, Matea Bakula, Razia Barsatie, Cláudia Cristovão, Yvonne Dröge Wendel, Rini Hurkmans, Remy Jungerman, Kristiina Koskentola, Otobong Nkanga, Daniel de Paula, Jens Pfeifer, Hans Scholten, Joseph Sassoon Semah and Judith Westerveld.

Getting ready for the opening of “Back and Forth and Back Again 40 Years” tomorrow! With the heartwarming contributions ...
05/03/2026

Getting ready for the opening of “Back and Forth and Back Again 40 Years” tomorrow! With the heartwarming contributions of many of our artists who have made the installation process even more special.

Come join the 40 Years anniversary celebrations tomorrow, Friday 6 March, from 17:00.

With works by Dennis Adams, Tiong Ang, Matea Bakula, Razia Barsatie, Cláudia Cristovão, Yvonne Dröge Wendel, Rini Hurkmans, Remy Jungerman, Kristiina Koskentola, Otobong Nkanga, Daniel de Paula, Jens Pfeifer, Hans Scholten, Joseph Sassoon Semah and Judith Westerveld.

Join us to the opening of the third and final chapter of our 40 Years Anniversary exhibition. “Back and Forth and Back A...
28/02/2026

Join us to the opening of the third and final chapter of our 40 Years Anniversary exhibition. “Back and Forth and Back Again – Part 3” closes a trilogy in which we have looked back at the history of artworks, conversations and exchanges built over four decades of Lumen Travo Gallery. 
After a first chapter dedicated to politically engaged practices and a second focused on playful and provocative works, we widen the horizon for this final instalment, stepping into a more existential and philosophical dimension.

This closing chapter explores our relationship with nature – both nurturing and implacable – and the relentless exploitation of the natural world. More introspective than the preceding sections, it reflects on our place within a fragile ecosystem, drawing on history, philosophy and the broader human condition. 

Artists Dennis Adams, Tiong Ang, Matea Bakula, Razia Barsatie, Yvonne Dröge Wendel, Rini Hurkmans, Remy Jungerman, Kristiina Koskentola, Otobong Nkanga, Daniel de Paula, Jens Pfeifer, Hans Scholten, Joseph Sassoon Semah and Judith Westerveld find a space here where their multidisciplinary practices are woven together, allowing meaningful connections and revelations on life and the afterlife to emerge.

What do we leave behind when we are gone? 
Where some perceive darkness and oblivion, these artists find opportunity for new life to rise again. The selected works share a fragility of existence and an ancestral quest for meaning.

Image: Lumen Travo’s founder Marianne van Tilborg for HP magazine DE TIJD, 1991. Photo: Ronald Hoeben. Text: Henry de By.

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Final days to see the second chapter of our anniversary exhibition ‘Back and Forth and Back again 40 years.’ On view unt...
27/02/2026

Final days to see the second chapter of our anniversary exhibition ‘Back and Forth and Back again 40 years.’ On view until February 28.

Presented in the show is ‘Silent Drums’ (1993) by Ronald in ‘T Hout, a work which explores the tension between silence and sound. The words inscribed on the drum, placed at the center of a quiet circle, set the tone for reflection before any sound is made.

“Bang the kettle. Bang the harp. Bang the black inside of your heart.”

This arrangement transforms the drum into a vessel of contemplation, inviting viewers to navigate the inner tension and delicate space between action and silence.

Come visit us this Saturday 13:00-18:00

Photo credits: Giovanni Nardi

We are delighted to announce that Otobong Nkanga will participate in the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennal...
26/02/2026

We are delighted to announce that Otobong Nkanga will participate in the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, “In Minor Keys”. Invited by Koyo Kouoh, Nkanga will present new works in the Central Pavilion, Giardini.
The artist’s practice explores the entanglement of land, resources, the body and collective memory, aligning closely with the curatorial themes of In Minor Keys.

La Biennale di Venezia 2026 runs from 9 May to 22 November 2026 (preview 6–8 May) across the Giardini, the Arsenale and various locations in Venice.

Image: Portrait of Otobong Nkanga, 2023. Photo Wim van Dongen © Otobong Nkanga, Courtesy Lisson Gallery

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At the in Mattancherry artist Otobong Nkanga presents ‘Soft Offerings to Scorched Lands and the Brokenhearted’ (2025), ...
24/02/2026

At the in Mattancherry artist Otobong Nkanga presents ‘Soft Offerings to Scorched Lands and the Brokenhearted’ (2025), a living, breathing garden installation unfolding as a quiet conversation between land, memory, and care. Rooted in Kochi’s ecological abundance and fragility, the work reflects on the enduring intelligence and attention that sustain ancient relationships between soil and its beings.

Tenderly nurtured by local gardeners, the space blooms with native and non native flora, from fiery Rajamalli (Peacock Flowers) and Torch Ginger to Bush Pepper, Orange Jasmine, and White Garland Lilies. A laterite paved path leads into a partially dilapidated room, held by banyan roots, where a small pond murmurs with fish and floating Ambal water lilies. Visitors are invited to wander, contemplate, rest, and admire the fruits and vegetables.
As you move through the space, a soundscape by Nithin Shamsuddhin interweaves old stories, rhythms, and songs connected to landscape, family life, and the sounds of bodies human bodies, tree bodies, and water bodies. These intimate public and private sounds meet within the garden and pond, grounding Nkanga’s vision of a work rooted in place, honoring what is alive, extending care to what has been lost and broken, and to the relationships between gardens, forests, fields, their caretakers, and communities.

‘Soft Offerings to Scorched Lands and the Brokenhearted’ is also a collective gesture. Otobong Nkanga is deeply grateful to collaborate with all the gardeners, artisans, builders, and workers who made this possible.

📍 111 Markaz & Cafe, Mattancherry
With heartfelt thanks to everyone who made this journey possible.

Reposted from

Dutch artist Dianne Hagen delves into the concepts of space and place, and the exchange or contradiction between the two...
20/02/2026

Dutch artist Dianne Hagen delves into the concepts of space and place, and the exchange or contradiction between the two.

The gentle emptiness of the work on paper presented here functions as a portal, where the absence of a singular dominant narrative opens up the perspective to multiple ways of perceiving reality.

Next to it, a sculpture consisting of an indoor fountain topped with a tongue cast in bronze and aluminum.

As the artist herself says: “The water slips or seeps from under the tongue, little hidden, a bit sneaky, or unavoidable. The water base falls in the category of decorative object these days. A pure fashionable object, stripped of its original use and meaning originating from Zen Buddhism. The brass lock is like a gatekeeper, a before and after.”

These works are on view at our current exhibition ‘Back and Forth and Back again 40 Years - Part 2’ until 28 February.

Image credits: Giovanni Nardi

Lumen Travo Gallery founder Marianne van Tilborg, surrounded by the colourful and surreal universe of Luigi Serafini, ba...
17/02/2026

Lumen Travo Gallery founder Marianne van Tilborg, surrounded by the colourful and surreal universe of Luigi Serafini, back in 1988.

As part of our 40th anniversary exhibition, we are currently showing a few very special works on paper by the Italian artist, from his solo show “Werken en Dagen” (1990).

On view until 28 February.
Open every week from Thursday to Saturday, 13:00–18:00.

First image: Marianne van Tilborg photographed by Luigi Serafini at Lumen Travo Gallery, 1988.
Other images: credits Giovanni Nardi.

Rik Lina ‘Meret’s Briquet’ (2022) and ‘Guitar Gate’ (1987) “In 2022 I made the assemblage ‘Meret’s Briquet’ 2022, a box ...
06/02/2026

Rik Lina ‘Meret’s Briquet’ (2022) and ‘Guitar Gate’ (1987)

“In 2022 I made the assemblage ‘Meret’s Briquet’ 2022, a box of objects measuring 21 x 16 x 7 centimeters. When I encountered this type of collecting box in a Chinese shop in Portugal, I decided to turn it into an amulet and talisman case, something common within surrealist circles. In such a box are objects with a particular magical meaning, found, received, made or otherwise gathered. In this case I mounted them permanently as one object.

The title refers to the portrait on the lighter: the Swiss artist Meret Oppenheim, which I used in my studio to heat the screw caps of dried paint tubes. On the back of the box I pasted a reproduction of the design drawing for her famous blood-veined gloves from 1985.

When I later brought the assemblage to the gallery, it turned out that Marianne owned this work of the pair of gloves and had just sent it to be framed, an extraordinary coincidence!”

- Rik Lina

‘Meret’s Briquet’ (2022) and ‘Guitar Gate’ (1987) are on display at our current exhibition ‘Back and Forth and Back again 40 Years - Part 2’ until February 28th.

Photo credits: Giovanni Nardi

Rombouts & Droste was an artist duo which consisted of Guy Rombouts (born 1949) and Monica Droste (1948–1998). They are ...
30/01/2026

Rombouts & Droste was an artist duo which consisted of Guy Rombouts (born 1949) and Monica Droste (1948–1998). They are best known for their “Azart alphabet,” which was originally designed in 1984 and has since served as a deliberately coincidental procedure for creating objects, sculptures, and paintings.

This line-based alphabet allows words to take on an endless array of two- and three-dimensional shapes, opening a new way to perceive our world through the flatness of letters and words. “Azart” refers to A–Z art, but also to the French word hasard, meaning coincidence.

In Azart each letter is translated into a corresponding line: A is angular, B is barred, C is curve, D is deviation, and Z is a zigzag line. When the lines are linked together, closed forms or word-images appear.

What takes place on the paper when forming Azart words parallels the way meaning is constructed through language itself. Words written in Azart visually define themselves through their structure, they carry meaning within their shape. By contrast, alphabetic words are defined through other words, which are again formed by the same letters as the words they define. This circular process of definition is made visible in the Azart circled words.

These works by Rombouts & Droste are on display at our current exhibition ‘Back and Forth and Back again 40 Years - Part 2’ until February 28, 2026

Photo credits: Giovanni Nardi

As part of our current group exhibition celebrating the 40th anniversary of Lumen Travo, we are presenting, among others...
26/01/2026

As part of our current group exhibition celebrating the 40th anniversary of Lumen Travo, we are presenting, among others, a series of paintings by Aldert Mantje. These works were originally shown in 1992 during Mantje’s solo exhibition “Another Blue World”. As the title and their chromatic resonance suggest, they refer to Picasso’s Blue Period - Picasso himself is also portrayed in one of the works. Dark and humorous, yet subtle and powerful, the paintings offer a portrait of the art world, reflecting on the price of success and the expectations of contemporary society.

The exhibition also features works by a diverse group of artists, including Guillaume Bijl, Rombouts & Droste, Dianne Hagen, Evelyne Janssen, Rik Lina, Emiel van Moerkerken, Amanda Palmer, Nathalie du Pasquier, Luigi Serafini, Skall, Joost Swarte, and Huub van Vroonhoven.

Visit us every week from Thursday to Saturday, 13:00–18:00.

Photo credits: Giovanni Nardi

Adres

Lijnbaansgracht 314
Amsterdam
1017WZ

Openingstijden

Donderdag 13:00 - 18:00
Vrijdag 13:00 - 18:00
Zaterdag 13:00 - 18:00

Telefoon

+31206270883

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Lumen Travo Gallery represents the following internationally acclaimed visual artists. Ade Darmawan, Otobong Nkanga, Meschac Gaba, Matea Bakula, Stephen Willats, Thierry Oussou, Guillaume Bijl, Milena Naef, Tiong Ang, Georges Adéagbo, Delphine Bedel, Zarina Bhimji, Andrea Blum, Franck Bragigand, Dennis Adams, Kathe Burkhart, Claudia Cristóvão, Yvonne Dröge Wendel, Jimmy Durham, Michel François, Dianne Hagen, Ni Haifeng, Rini Hurkmans, Jean Bernard Koeman, Kristiina Koskentola, Monali Meher, Marion Möller, Shirin Neshat, Jens Pfeifer, Ibrahim Quraishi, Hans Scholten and Margret Wibmer.