Since three decades i have been encountering and visiting exhibitions at the Slewe art gallery in Amsterdam nad since the exhibitions by Joris Geurts ( Irma Boom design) one of my favorit dutch galleries.
Tucked into the centre of Amsterdam, Slewe Gallery has spent over thirty years quietly building one of the Netherlands’ most consistent programs devoted to contemporary abstract art. It’s not a gallery chasing trends — it’s one that picked a lane in 1994 and has stayed remarkably true to it ever since.
A Gallery Built Around a Single Conviction
Slewe Gallery was founded by Martita Slewe in October 1994, and from the start its internationally oriented program focused on new tendencies in abstract art, particularly painting That focus has never really wavered. Where many galleries broaden their scope over time, Slewe has instead gone deeper — cultivating long relationships with painters and sculptors working in rigorous, often minimal, abstract languages.
The gallery space itself was designed by Herman Postma, and the program typically mounts around seven solo exhibitions a year. Publications have been part of the identity too: catalogs accompanying shows are often designed by Irma Boom, who handles all of the gallery’s graphic design, including anniversary volumes marking Slewe’s 10th and 25th years
Since the late 2000s, the gallery has expanded its programming beyond the standard solo-show format. A curated group show has been organized almost yearly since 2009, and since 2011 the gallery has produced a series of video interviews with artists conducted by critic Robert-Jan Muller, followed by an audio interview series with Robert van Altena starting in 2018
An International Footprint
Despite its modest scale, Slewe has never operated as a purely local concern. Its artists have exhibited internationally and taken part in major museum shows and biennials, with works entering both public and private collections through the gallery.
www.ftn-books.com has many Slewe publications now available.
