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Amsterdam’s vibrant art scene always has much to offer. The most important and best-known museum for modern and contemporary art and design in the Netherlands is the Stedelijk Museum (pronounced roughly like “Stedelek”), which houses impressive exhibits by the most significant international and Dutch artists. Situated on Museumplein in Amsterdam, the Stedelijk is the largest museum of its kind and is a must-visit for art enthusiasts. The museum’s collection includes exceptional works of art by world-famous modern artists from the 20th century.
This winter, the Stedelijk is hosting two major exhibitions: ‘Martin Wong – Malicious Mischief,’ featuring the work of Chinese-American artist Martin Wong, and Nan Goldin’s solo exhibition, “This Won’t End Well.” Learn more about these ongoing exhibitions in our article.
Martin Wong – Malicious Mischief
The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam presents an exhibition featuring the works of Chinese-American artist Martin Wong. Titled ‘Martin Wong – Malicious Mischief,’ the exhibition provides an overview of Wong’s oeuvre, starting in 1968 in California and extending through the iconic images of his time in New York in the 1980s, to the works that Wong, suffering from AIDS, created in San Francisco shortly before his death in 1999.
Martin Wong stands out as an important countercultural voice, recognized for his depictions of social, sexual, and political scenes from the end of the 20th century in the US. As a self-taught artist heavily influenced by his immediate surroundings, Wong focused on largely underrepresented but socially relevant topics, including gender, marginalized sexuality, and migrant communities in his work. His artistic practice merges the visual languages of Chinese iconography, urban poetry, graffiti, sculpture, and sign language.
In his early years, Martin Wong studied ceramics and printmaking at Humboldt State University in California, influenced by the passion he shared with his mother for antique objects and ancient Chinese ceramics. In the late 1960s, Wong initiated his career as a performance artist by joining the theater group The Cockettes. Later, he became a part of their breakout group, Angels of Light Free Theater, contributing to the production of sets and costumes that reflected the collective’s interests in expanded perceptions, psychedelics, and queer self-expression. Eventually parting ways with the Angels of Light Free Theater, Wong decided to fully pursue his artistic career and relocated to New York.
In 1978, he settled in the former Meyer’s Grand Hotel at the South Street Seaport, where he remained for nearly three years. During this time, Wong worked as a night porter, utilizing a hotel room as his studio. In New York, Wong dedicated himself to painting, drawing inspiration from urban landscapes and his experiences.
In 1982, he moved to Ridge Street on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, known at the time as ‘Loisaida’ – a working-class neighborhood predominantly inhabited by Puerto Ricans. As a homosexual Sino-American living in a Latino community, Wong portrayed his life amidst a community of immigrants and the social reality of his surroundings. This included urban decay and displacement due to gentrification, as well as street culture, crimes, drug addiction, and the constant presence of police sirens. While living in Loisaida, Wong formed long-lasting friendships and creative collaborations with prominent members of the New York graffiti scene. In addition to his paintings, he also experimented with poetry and prose, often written on long rolls of paper.
Wong’s work offers a rare insight into decisive periods of recent US American history, as told through changing urban landscapes, unfolding hidden desires, and complexities. In 1986, he presented an immersive installation composed of ten storefronts standing on the floor, portraying the urban change of the Lower East Side and questioning the destruction brought to the area through increasing gentrification. Street culture, graffiti, crime, drugs, and the life of an immigrant community building a new home despite precarious circumstances represent recurring motifs in Wong’s work. Self-empowerment strategies and the poetry of everyday life are at the center of his paintings.
Martin Wong’s transgressive works contributed to the artist being excluded from official art historiography throughout his life. Only after his death was his legacy reflected and honored in a larger context of queerness, community engagement, and diversity. The exhibition ‘Martin Wong – Malicious Mischief’ aims to make Wong’s work visible in Europe and to negotiate the representation of minority communities in painting.
Nan Goldin – This Won’t End Well
Nan Goldin’s solo exhibition, “This Won’t End Well” is on display at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam until January 28, 2024. Nan Goldin stands out as one of our time’s most controversial and widely discussed artists. Throughout her career, she has crafted dozens of moving image works, comprising thousands of images that span from portraits of her friends to poignant family narratives addressing addiction and domestic violence.
Her photographs and moving-image works address essential themes of identity, love, sexuality, addiction, and mortality. Uniting art and activism, Goldin has confronted the HIV/AIDS epidemic since the 1980s and today brings international attention to the overdose crisis.
Born in 1953 in Washington, DC, Goldin left home at fourteen and discovered her passion for photography at sixteen. Her early black-and-white images showcased the beauty of Boston’s transgender community and were exhibited in 1973. Moving to New York in 1978, she documented her chosen family in various cultural scenes, creating The Ballad of Sexual Dependency—a multimedia project exhibited globally. Goldin’s work, including her documentation of the AIDS epidemic, has been featured in numerous exhibitions and books, showcasing her unflinching portrayal of societal struggles. In 1989, she curated Witnesses: Against Our Vanishing at New York’s Artists Space, highlighting artists affected by AIDS.
Goldin’s recent artistic exploration centers on themes of spirituality and mortality. Her portraits capture individuals, couples, and families over extended periods, as well as series capturing empty rooms marked by human presence. In 2010, the Musée du Louvre commissioned “Scopophilia,” where Goldin paired her work with images from the Louvre’s collection, delving into the fluidity of gender and the constancy of desire. In Goldin’s work, the narrative unfolds through projected images, large-scale grids, single prints, and books, creating thematic relationships among her photographs.
Beyond her artistic pursuits, Goldin founded P.A.I.N. (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now) in 2017, an advocacy group addressing the overdose crisis, staging public actions, and successfully challenging institutions. P.A.I.N. focuses on promoting life-saving treatments for drug users and advocating for harm reduction in public policy.
The retrospective “This Will Not End Well” at Stedelijk delves into Nan Goldin’s photographic practice in the realm of filmmaking. Honoring the artist’s original vision for how her work should be experienced, the exhibition unfolds across six distinct buildings designed by architect Hala Wardé. It primarily focuses on Goldin’s slideshows and video installations, complemented by sound and music, offering a unique perspective on her artistic journey. The exhibition has journeyed to Amsterdam from Moderna Museet, Stockholm. After its showcase at Stedelijk, it is scheduled to travel to the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin and Pirelli Hangar Bicocca in Milan before making its way to the United States.
