AkzoNobel Art Foundation Finds 'Common Ground' with New Exhibition

A new exhibition opened to the public at the AkzoNobel Art Space in Amsterdam. Entitled Common Ground, the official opening ceremony will be performed by the Dutch Minister of Education, Culture and Science, Ingrid van Engelshoven. 

Featuring work by several celebrated artists, the exhibition was devised by Tom Postma Design. It focuses on where people meet and communicate and how these places are represented and interpreted in art.

The event is being hosted by Thierry Vanlancker, CEO of AkzoNobel and new chairman of the AkzoNobel Art Foundation.

"We're not just passionate about paint at AkzoNobel, we're also passionate about art, so I'm proud to be involved in opening this new exhibition," he said. "Art has a powerful ability to create common ground and the AkzoNobel Art Space is playing an important role in connecting the company's creative and corporate reality to everyday society. The design of this new exhibition is also exciting, as it encourages visitors and employees to mingle and find their own common ground."

"People don't always appreciate the fact that the places where we meet actually have an influence on our communal lives,” said Hester Alberdingk Thijm, director of the AkzoNobel Art Foundation. “And it goes deeper than that, because in addition to these physical meeting places, we also share an intellectual and spiritual level of interaction. Our new exhibition tries to capture this and illustrate all of these ideas and ideals." 

The multidisciplinary exhibition contains artworks by both young talent and internationally renowned artists, such as Jennifer Tee, Charles Avery, Damien Hirst, Otobong Nkanga, Sam Salehi Samiee, Maria Roosen, Hester Oerlemans, Guido van der Werve, Isaac Julien, Michael Wolf and Xiaoxiao Xu. 

Several exclusive pieces have been created, including a mural by Gijs Frieling which expresses modern humanity's desire to reconnect with nature. Frank Havermans has also made a site-specific installation as a proposal for urban change in a world where everything is about efficiency, speed and standardization. 

The exhibition, which is free of charge, is being staged at the AkzoNobel Center in the Zuidas area of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.