AkzoNobel Art Foundation

22/09/2026

Monica Ragazzini is Italian, but lives and works in Amsterdam since the time she studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy. She gained renown with her photographic series of flying clothes.

The artist: ‘What I look for is not what an object is to me or is in itself, but how the camera renders it and gives it new meaning’.

By photographing her subjects in an iconic way, she creates a strange stillness within ‘the skin of our time’, a frozen moment that is more an indication of an era than a snapshot. It is not time itself that is represented in her work, but a reflection of it.

Ragizzini has frequently exhibited in the Netherlands and abroad, with LANGart, Arti et Amicitiae and at the prestigious Les Rencontres d’Arles. Her work was published internationally and is held in various public and private collections.

🎨 Images:

1,2: Monica Ragazzini | The Red Silk Shirt | 2024 | digital photo print (slide 1: detail)
3: Monica Ragazzini | The Spring Dress | 2024 | digital photo print
4: Monica Ragazzini | Two Lovers | 2024 | digitale photoprint
5: Monica Ragazzini | In My Dreams | 2024 | digital photo print
6: Monica Ragazzini | Anime | 2012 | Light-jet C-print on Dibond, Diasec
7: Monica Ragazzini | Cocoon | 2012 | C-print on Dibond, plexiglass | ed 1/3

Monica Ragazzini
LANG
Les Rencontres d'Arles

18/09/2026

‘I try to understand and capture the universal quality of words as an abstract language that connects us all’ (Navid Nuur)

Text-based works figure prominently in the practice of the Dutch-Iranian artist. His work is interlinked with issues of identity, such as a childhood learning Farsi and his subsequent struggle to master the Latin alphabet.

Although rooted in conceptual thinking, his work often begins with a personal visual question. For Nuur, form does not simply follow idea; it emerges through the intuition and condition of the one creating it.

Navid Nuur’s work has been exhibited at important venues including Centre Pompidou, Dordrechts Museum, Frans Hals Museum and the Bonnefanten Museum. He participated in the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011 and at this very moment the artist is taking part in Manifesta Biennial 2026 with the installation ‘The main remain’, that can be viewed in Essen, Germany.

At the AkzoNobel Art Foundation we are happy to share that slide 2 displays an artwork that represents the very first jointly acquired artwork by a museum and a corporate collection in The Netherlands! The Dordrechts Museum and the AkzoNobel Art Foundation are proudly co-owning the monumental work ‘Untitled (AASWWEEBBEECCOOMMEEEOONNEE) ✨

Navid Nuur
Dordrechts Museum
Manifesta Biennial
Martin van Zomeren

🎨 Images:

1. Navid Nuur | HOPE | 2012-2023 | Namibian blue marble, gold leaf
2. Navid Nuur | AS WE BECOME ONE | 2021 | 3 mirrors, 2 steel structures
3. Navid Nuur | Untitled (Lost in Translation) | 2011 | pencil on paper (diptych)
4. Navid Nuur | Untitled (Lost in Translation) | 2011 | pencil on paper (diptych)
5. Navid Nuur | The Tuners | 2015-2021 | prepared linen, mixed media

14/09/2026

GOLD

The work of Harmen Brethouwer seems to live in a mobile world, in which meaning and meaningless slowly merge and the repeated word erodes. Like an alchemist, he recreates and dissects our past through old stories, fragments, symbolism, archetypes, craft, precious materials and historical facts.

The artist stated: ‘I decided to embrace art history in its entirety, so that nothing would be impossible. I looked for forms capable of carrying every kind of artistic view, one standing freely in space, and one hanging on a wall’.

Brethouwer studied at the academies of fine arts in Kampen and Arnhem. Since the 1990s, he has exhibited in museums and galleries in the Netherlands and abroad, including (solo) exhibitions at Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam and Centraal Museum in Utrecht.


HIDDE VAN SEGGELEN

08/09/2026

‘Green is the most important color in the world, and the color from which all its beauty springs’ (Pedro Calderón de la Barca)

Today we got inspired to wander through the art collection, looking for the silvery-green vibe of the just revealed AkzoNobel Color of the Year 2027!

The soft green paint Soulful Sage stands for simplicity, a natural appearence and calm environments and it may soften the often overwhelming pressure of the modern life…

🎨 Images:
1,2: Pere Llobera | Mark in the river | 2005 | Oil paint on canvas (slide 1: detail)
3,4: Lin de Mol | Moss Table | 2010 | Lambda print on Dibond (slide 1: detail)
5,6: Pär Strömberg | A Quick view over Appojaure | 2000 | Oil paint on canvas (slide 1: detail)
7,8: Ad Gerritsen | Bar Voets II | 2002 | Oil paint on linen (slide 1: detail)
9,10: Andrei Roiter | National Dust | 1993 | enamel on steel (slide 1: detail)
11,12: Frank Nitsche | GFG-15-2003 | 2003 | Oil paint on linen
13,14: Jurriaan Molenaar | Zonder titel | 1996 | Oil paint, acrylic paint, gel on canvas (slide 1: detail)
15,16: Monica Ragazzini | Angels, 2008 | C-print on Dibond | Diasec | ed. 1/7

Lin de Mol Pär Strömberg | W**e & Art Andrei Roiter Monica Ragazzini AkzoNobel

08/09/2026

07/09/2026

Liquid gold dancing and twisting, this is how this artwork by Zoro Feigl feels at the first glance. His installations seem to be alive!

The work is jokingly referred by the artist as his ‘moving Rothko’ and is part of the Conveyor series. Locked into movement yet constantly changing, similar to the world we live in, the work seems to be alive and simultaneously fragile. The artist: ‘The exhibition space becomes an enlarged microscope: single-cell creatures, primitive organisms are twisting, groaning and convulsing. Without beginning or end the objects seem to be locked into themselves. As a viewer you become entangled in their movements: they embrace and amaze, but sometimes also frighten you’.

As one of the most renowned Dutch kinetic artists, Feigl has recently exhibited at the Cobra Museum and Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, with works held in the collections of Museum Voorlinden and the Rijksmuseum Twenthe. Furthermore, his work has been shown at international institutions such as The Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, the National Art Museum of China, the Galeria de Arte do SESI in Sao Paulo, Brazil and Kulturhuset Stockholm in Sweden.

Image: Zoro Feigl | Conveyor series ‘Glam’ | 2017 | oil on pvc, stainless steel (slide 1: detail)

Zoro Feigl
Vriend van Bavink Gallery

03/09/2026

Monali Meher is a multidisciplinary artist who’s work blends personal and collective memories, longing, belonging and the familiar with the unfamiliar. Her most recent exhibition in New Dehli brought together two decades of her working performance, installation and material practice looking at how bodies, material and landscape hold memory.

In her performances, she physically traces routes and this is also reflected in the footprints. The New Indian Express, September 2026 wrote: ‘The use of red thread to trace paths and connect pieces of fabric is also noticeable throughout the works. According to Meher, red can carry a multitude of meanings. from love and hate to violence, blood and auspiciousness. The thread in her works hints at movement, continuity and migration’.

Furthermore, Meher’s art is acknowledged for showing the differences between cultural traditions and identities, while uniting them in a single image. Her performances and work have been widely shown at, among others, the Van Gogh Museum (NL), The National Art Gallery of Modern Art (India), Tate Modern (UK) and MARTa Herford (Germany). 

🎨 Images:

1. Monali Meher | Golden Paithani On Chaise Longue | 2006 | digital C-print | ed. 1/5 + 2 AP
2. Monali Meher | Waiting in a Green Room of Catharijn Gasthuis | 2006 | digital C-print | ed. 1/5 + 2 AP
3. Monali Meher | Hunt Respect | 2013 | drawing, wool, digital print on canvas
4. Monali Meher | Embroider V | 2008 | wool on photograph
5. Monali Meher | Embroider I, 2008 | wool on photograph
6. Monali Meher | Melted Sand no. 7 | 2019-2022 | Glass, painted with plastic stand
7. Monali Meher | Embroider II | 2008 | wool on photograph

Monali Meher
Lumen Travo
LATITUDE 28

collectionakzonobelartfoundation

24/08/2026

LATE SUMMER, EARLY FALL✨

With September breathing upon the gold fading of August, we cannot help thinking about ‘La Rentrée’, the collective post-summer awakening that the French are mastering so well. It is not only a national reset, but also a symbol of fresh beginnings!

With beautiful artworks from our collection, that remind of the gold and the blue of the summer, we are saying good-bye not only to the holiday season but also to the current exhibition in our Art Space in Amsterdam.

‘Beyond These Walls II’ can still be visited today and tomorrow, and from Wednesday on we will be closing the Art Space for a spectacular reset and for building up the new exhibition! ‘ReflAction’ is our 30 years anniversary exhibition, that will open to visit from October 1st on. Stay tuned!

🎨 Images:
1,2: Heidrun Rathgeb | A Night at Farø | 2021 | egg tempera on gesso panel (slide 1: detail)
3. Stefan Peters | Untitled (Vista series) | 2020 | oil paint, gold leaf, wooden panel
4. Sebastiaan Bremer | Large Schoener Goetterfunken III B, ‘In the universal time machine’ (In der grossen Weltenuhr) | 2010 | acrylic paint, ink on C-print
5. Götz Diergarten | Zonder titel, (Gouville, Overview) | 2002 | C-print on Diasec, plexiglas
6. Gijs Frieling | Zonder titel | 1996 | Egg tempera on linen
7. Maria Roosen | Tent | 1998-2015 | Canvas, glass, tent poles
8. Daan Zuijderwijk | Yellow Dots # 01 | 2017 | giclee ultrachrome print | ed. AP2 of 5 + 2AP
9. misha de ridder | Bergwald | 2013 | Kodak Endura print on Dibond | ed. 1/7
10. Antonietta Peeters | Lakes and Rivers | 2000 | gouache on linen
11. Hans Op de Beeck | Cruise Liner (at night) | 2009 | watercolor on Arches paper
rathgeb Sebastiaan Bremer Stefan Peters Gijs Frieling Götz Diergarten Hans Op de Beeck

19/08/2026

Such a nice surprise! Artist Niek Hendrix visited our Art Space and brought a special gift to the Art Foundation team: jubileum prints for our 30 years anniversary of one of his beautiful new artworks!

Hendrix regards images from paintings, whether iconic or not, as an open source. He reimagines artworks by repeating them and placing them in a different context. The aim is not to create an exact copy, but to transform them into a different image. He paints it with a different brushstroke, a different paint; colors are set aside and appear in shades of black and white, and the dimensions are also different.

At the AkzoNobel Art Foundation, we regularly acquire works of art by young artists and that is exactly what we did with Hendrix’ work at the time. We are glad that we recognized his talent and value early on and that we have a significant number of his signature works in our collection.

Thank you, Niek! It felt very special and we loved having you with us!

Niek Hendrix
www. niekhendrix.com

🎨 Images:

1. Nick Hendrix | Untitled (Spectrum, The Gift), Oil on panel
2,3: Art Space AkzoNobel Art Foundation, Niek Hendrix and our team
4. Dedication from the artist to the AkzoNobel Art Foundation team, print gifted for our 30 years anniversary and the yearlong collaboration
5. Nick Hendrix | Untitled (Spectrum, Green-Blue), Oil on panel
6. Nick Hendrix | Untitled (Spectrum, Blue-Violet), Oil on panel
7. Nick Hendrix | Untitled (Spectrum, Yellow-Green), Oil on panel
8. Nick Hendrix | Untitled (Spectrum, Red-Yellow), Oil on panel