upcoming exhibitions

upcoming and current exhibitions

Dat Bolwerck Zutphen (NL)

Solo show Life-Line – terug naar de bron

17 January – 29 March 2026

A show about loss. For this project the artist went back to the source and followed the water of her childhood at the IJsselmeer lake.The result is a poetical show in which loss, grief, hope, resilience and water meet in an installation combined with new paintings and works on paper.
The art project Life-Line is supported by VandenEnde Foundation and the Mondriaan Fund.

Water as a Carrier of Loss and Memory in Karin Bos’s LIFE-LINE

The IJssel River is the anchor point in visual artist Karin Bos’s solo exhibition LIFE-LINE, which runs from January 17 to March 29, 2026, at Dat Bolwerck in Zutphen. Bos developed a new, personal installation for LIFE-LINE, centered around water from the IJssel River.

For LIFE-LINE, Bos drew inspiration from her childhood on the IJsselmeer lake. Her project is interwoven with an intimate family history that follows the IJssel River. Bos followed the river, collecting water from various locations with biographical significance: near the IJsselmeer lake where she grew up and at the site where her parents’ ashes were scattered. She also collected water from the IJ in Amsterdam, where she lives and where her mother spent the last months of her life.

Friction Between Humanity and Nature
Bos bottled the water in hand-blown glass objects. They are presented alongside photography, paintings, three-dimensional work, and works on paper. The installation resonates with the themes of water, loss, and memory. The historic Dat Bolwerck building also features in plaster objects, echoing a bygone era.

Karin Bos’s work is characterized by the depiction of the friction between people and between humanity and nature. She explicitly seeks out the tension in these moments of friction. Her paintings depict seemingly fairytale-like landscapes, behind which something ominous or alienating lurks. Suggestion plays a key role: the use of carefully chosen colors and intense light creates a cinematic atmosphere that evokes an underlying tension.

Apparent Purity
In this world of stories, nothing is what it seems: a cheerful scene could just as easily be a scene of drama or crime. This ambiguity, in which desire and tragedy intersect, forms the undercurrent in her work.

With LIFE-LINE, Bos adds a layered image of life as a continuous flow in which people get lost, get stuck, experience grief and vulnerability, but also find resilience, beauty, and happiness.

Bio
Karin Bos (Rijswijk, 1966) lives and works in Amsterdam and graduated from the Amsterdam University of the Arts in 1989. Her oeuvre includes paintings and works on paper and is part of various national and international museum collections, including CODA Museum, Teylers Museum, Rijksmuseum, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, CAB Museum (Spain), Stadtische Galerie Bietigheim-Bissingen (Germany), and the Lonsford Collection (United States).

Information about LIFE-LINE
This solo exhibition by Karin Bos can be seen from January 17 to March 29, 2026, at Dat Bolwerck, Zaadmarkt 112 in Zutphen. Admission is free and open Thursday through Sunday between 11:00 AM and 5:00 PM.

More information can be found at datbolwerck.nl

LIFE-LINE is supported by the VandenEnde Foundation and the Mondriaan Fund.

The opening on Saturday, January 17, 2026, from 5 p.m. will be performed by Ronald Ockhuysen, director of the VandeEnde Foundation. Welcome!

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Highlighted special events: Artist Talk with Karin Bos and Sito Rozema, curator of Museum MORE on Friday January 30th at 8 pm.
Workshop at Waterkracht
by Karin Bos on Wednesday February 11th from 2.30 – 5 pm

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Museum De Wieger Deurne (NL) 2026

Solo show I know what I saw

6 June – 27 September 2026

For this summer show at Museum De Wieger, Karin Bos was inspired by the landscapes of De Peel area. The museum itself including the life of Hendrik Wiegersma, as a doctor and a painter, are also present in the exhibition. It is surrounded by works that were created during travels and art projects abroad in which people and nature play a major role.

Museum garden: sculptures by Erik Wuthrich