Gallery WM 25th Anniversary Exhibition 15.02 – 15.03.2025

English below

Gallery WM

25-jarig jubileum!

© Krzystof Pruszkowski 2003

Gallery WM viert 25-jarig jubileum

met bijzondere overzichtstentoonstelling

15.02 – 15.03.2024

opening zaterdag 15 februari 2025 17:00 – 20:00 uur

Op zaterdag 15 februari 2025 opent Gallery WM (Elandsgracht 35, Amsterdam) de deuren voor een feestelijke viering van haar 25-jarig bestaan. Ter ere van dit jubileum heeft Gallery WM een unieke tentoonstelling samengesteld met werken van vele kunstenaars die de afgelopen kwart eeuw bij de galerie hebben geëxposeerd.

Café Koetsier in Antwerpen, 1983 © Dutch den Hollander

De tentoonstelling omvat werk van meer dan 70 kunstenaars, een indrukwekkende selectie uit de 160 tentoonstellingen die Gallery WM sinds 2000 heeft georganiseerd. Elk van de deelnemende kunstenaars is vertegenwoordigd met één werk, veelal afkomstig uit de eigen collectie van de galerie. Deze verzameling is een weerspiegeling van de keuzes die de galeriehouders door de jaren heen hebben gemaakt en toont de diversiteit en passie die Gallery WM kenmerken.

Hoewel Gallery WM bekend staat als een fotogalerie, laat deze overzichtstentoonstelling zien dat het moeilijk is om de galerie in één stijl of stroming te vatten. Het eclectische karakter, gecombineerd met de warme, persoonlijke sfeer van dit familiebedrijf, maakt Gallery WM uniek. Het is een plek waar kunst met hart en ziel wordt gepresenteerd, en waar loyaliteit en vriendschap centraal staan.

Tijdens de opening wordt ook het boek Life with Cats van Wanda Michalak gepresenteerd. Dit kattenboek, ontworpen met de medewerking van Harrie Blommesteijn & Birgitt Busz en dat de afgelopen maanden met steun van ons vrienden en publiek is gerealiseerd, is een viering van de charme en het karakter van katten.

© Wanda Michalak

Enkele van de deelnemende kunstenaars zijn onder meer naamgeefster Wanda Michalak, Jacques B. Rieder, Nico van der Stam, Renan Cepeda, Patricia Ribas, Huang Qingjun, Mirella von Chrupek, Tadeusz Rolke, Andrij Bojarov en Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski, naast vele anderen. Fotografen Jaap Bijsterbosch, die de allereerste expositie in 2000 opende, en Pete Purnell, bekend van zijn portretten van bijna alle exposanten, spelen een bijzondere rol tijdens deze viering.

Gallery WM nodigt iedereen van harte uit om dit jubileum mee te vieren en een reis door 25 jaar kunstgeschiedenis van de galerie te maken. De opening wordt feestelijk ingeluid met een speech van Jaap Bijsterbosch, waarna de tentoonstelling te bezichtigen is.

Birosca 1, 2004   © Renan Cepeda

Gallery WM Celebrates 25th Anniversary

with a Special Retrospective Exhibition

15.02 – 15.03.2025

Opening Saturday 15 February  5:00PM -8:00 PM  

On Saturday, February 15, 2025, Gallery WM (Elandsgracht 35, Amsterdam) will open its doors for a festive celebration of its 25th anniversary. To mark this milestone, Gallery WM has curated a unique exhibition featuring works by many of the artists who have exhibited at the gallery over the past quarter century.

The exhibition showcases work by over 70 artists, an impressive selection from the 160 exhibitions Gallery WM has organised since 2000. Each participating artist is represented by a single work, often drawn from the gallery’s own collection. This collection reflects the decisions and passion of the gallery owners over the years and highlights the diversity and commitment that define Gallery WM.

Although Gallery WM is primarily known as a photography gallery, this retrospective exhibition demonstrates that the gallery resists categorisation. Its eclectic character, combined with the warm, personal atmosphere of this family-run business, makes Gallery WM truly unique. It is a space where art is presented with heart and soul, fostering loyalty and friendship.

© Katarzynka Mirczak

During the opening, the book Life with Cats by Wanda Michalak will also be presented. This delightful book about cats, designed with the assistance of Harrie Blommesteijn & Birgitt Busz and brought to life  over the past months with the support of our friends and public, celebrates the charm and character of feline companions.

Among the featured artists are Jacques B. Rieder, Nico van der Stam, Renan Cepeda, Patricia Ribas, Huang Qingjun, Mirella von Chrupek, Tadeusz Rolke, Andrij Bojarov and Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski, among many, many others. Photographers Jaap Bijsterbosch, who gave the gallery’s first opening speech in 2000, and Pete Purnell, known for his portraits of nearly all exhibiting artists, will play a special role in this celebration.

Gallery WM warmly invites everyone to join in this celebration and take a journey through 25 years of the gallery’s art history. The festivities will be marked by an opening speech by Jaap Bijsterbosch, after which the exhibition will be available for viewing.

© Marloes der Kinderen

The Opening

15.02.2025 the opening – photo © Martin de Groot

Opening Speech by Jaap Bijsterbosch

I want to take you back to the year 1991. Gerrit Schuttevaar gives a party which is attended by his friend Paul Schaublin from Switzerland and Wanda Michalak from Poland. Long story short, Wanda and Paul get married in 1996 and after a while they start looking for a new house, where they want to live but where they both also want to start a gallery. And there must be a place for Wanda’s darkroom. Wanda finds it here, right in the place where we are all standing now. And where 25 years and a month ago Gallery WM starts.

When I ask Paul which exhibition he remembered most, except of course Wanda’s shows, he starts to smile a little shyly and answers: “The Service Stations”. It was that beautiful exhibition about petrol stations, with photos by photographers from all over the world, with a beautiful book too. Today at this festive exhibition you will find photos of service stations all over the place, with a real Schäublin, a photo of a petrol station designed by Paul in a previous life.

By the way, the photo was taken by Harrie Blommesteijn, who together with Birgit Busz also did some very nice things in Wanda’s Cat Book, as presented today.

When I ask Sebastian, he also comes up with Petrol stations.

I understand those answers. The exhibition about service stations embodies everything that WM Gallery is good at. Passion, love for the image, not just the photographic image by the way, but also collaboration with people from all over the world and also an international orientation, although sometimes a bit Polish.

Wanda gives a different answer. She tells about an exhibition where she and Paul were sitting during the opening, with the exhibiting photographer abroad. The whole afternoon there was not a single interested visitor. The blues of a gallery owner.

The first 10 years Wanda often organizes the gallery solo. Paul works abroad most of the time, and Sebastian serves the drinks. Although Sebastian gradually leaves his mark on the gallery’s operations.

When Paul and Wanda move to Australia in 2010, Sebastian and his friend Nahuel Blaton continue to run the gallery as “Anthropologists in Art”. Thanks to these two, an extra dimension of reflection is added to the exhibition agenda. Each announcement is often accompanied by a well-thought-out explanation.

In 2015, Wanda and Paul return. The gallery is enlarged. The garden with the large tulip painting, which you can see in the photo over there, becomes extra exhibition space. Wanda’s darkroom is divided into a kitchen and a toilet. An era is coming to an end. Analogue is over. We have become digital.

I myself remember the exhibition with night photos that I had in 2000. I had to make about 60 press prints. Plus photos for Marta’s scanner, which she used into the gallery’s website.

Over the past 25 years, photography has gone from being almost completely analogue to being almost entirely digital. Yet today, several former classically printed barite prints are still hanging here. Amongst those a beauty of the late Jaap Rieder.

Pete Purnell, the super hangman of WM and the portraitist of the gallery, mentions the name of Krzysztof Pruszkowsky in response to my question about an exhibition that has stayed with him. In 2003, Pruszkowsky had an exhibition called Plural Vision. They were images that were precisely mounted on top of each other. When one sees how exactly and accurately Pete hangs his own and our photos, one understands his choice.

When I ask myself the question: Jaap, what is the exhibition that sticks with you the most, I think of the show during the corona period: “Traces”. The family tree of Wanda, Paul and friend Frederieke, depicted in a moving and also anthropological way. An exhibition that made me feel how we are ultimately just a small piece of history. Somehow the meaning of that exhibition fitted exactly into that confusing time.

A gallery is like an iceberg. A visitor sees 10%, the pieces of art that are showed. One does not see the other 90%. The conversations with artists, positive and negative, sometimes with customers, the furnishing, the catering, the sometimes-painful process of selection.

There have been 167 exhibitions here in the past 25 years. 167 invitations, 167 press releases. On average at least 10 bottles per exhibition mean at least1670 bottles of wine. White wine. Red wine leaves stains.

So, today is party time. Over 25 years of exhibitions, photographs, painting, drawings. Over 25 years of friendship, love and determination.

Wanda, Paul, Sebastian, from the bottom of my heart I want to thank you for those 25 years!

On behalf of all of us:

Congratulations!

Jaap Bijsterbosch 

15.02.2025