30.05.2024 - 21.07.2024
Opening Thursday May 30th from 5 - 8 pm
(afterwards at Bos en Lommerweg 88 until late)
Chances are it’s morning, looking out to smell that yellow sun; bright before, orange after. This ear, this early — that ant crawling on your shoulder. Their arms warm to hold me, perhaps there is a life here. “Oh dandelions milk, will you carry my thoughts and dreams?” Wide awake, she told me: “all ear all ear had you heard me that first time.” Do not be afraid of your own heart jumping. The tendrils crawled back to the house, so you forgot to mention what she told you. I whispered back: “i-loooove-you too”.
No Man's Art Gallery is honoured to present dandelions milk, Afra Eisma's debut solo exhibition with the gallery. In the echoing worlds of two gallery spaces, where lips speak, drips fall, and ants scurry alongside otherworldly beings, Afra Eisma brings magical worlds to life, where emotion serves as a source of strength and trauma acts as a catalyst for self empowerment and change. The vibrant and colourful nature of Eisma's installations is a strategy to address sensitive issues and illuminate the darker sides of personal experiences.
Tactile worlds exude playfulness and tell numerous interwoven stories. Eisma describes her rich imagination as a politically charged terrain; a universal space for gathering, exchange, and dialogue. dandelions milk emphasises the potential of radical imagination to build new world views; placing care, solidarity, and trust at the forefront. The role of mutual and reciprocal relationships within the artist’s ecosystem takes centre stage.
dandelions milk is part of Amsterdam Art Week and extends to both gallery locations: Willem de Zwijgerlaan 327 and Bos en Lommerweg 88 and runs until July 21th 2024. For more information or inquiries contact info@nomansart.com
Afra Eisma (b. 1993, NL) lives and works in Den Haag, the Netherlands. She studied Fine Arts at the Royal Academy of Arts, the Hague, and Central Saint Martins, London. Using craft techniques in novel ways, the artist explores and manifests personal stories through immersive and intimate installations of textiles, sculptures, and ceramics. Recently, Afra Eisma has been dedicated to creating immersive installations that actively involve the viewer, turning the sanctuary into an extension of the body. Generosity becomes a form of resistance.
Recent and upcoming solo exhibitions include: Hop to Hope, Wälnö Aaltosen Museo, Turku, FN (2023); Splashdown Tetley, The Tetley, Leeds, UK (2023); Your silence will not protect you, Fries Museum, Leeuwarden, NL (2021); Feline Whispers, 1646, Den Haag, NL (2020); Rooms of now #3, Vleeshal, Middelburg, NL (2019). Recent group exhibitions include: Outside the soup, W139, Amsterdam, (2024); Very small feelings, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi, IN (2023); Multiplied Voices, CIAJG, Guimaraes, Portugal (2022), De Scheffer Prijs, Dordrechts Museum, Dordrecht, Netherlands (2022); 84 steps, Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam, Netherlands (2021); Utsuro Bune, garden lab, Kyoto, Japan (2020); The sticky beaver show, Parallel Vienna, Vienna, Austria (2019); Royal Award for Modern Painting exhibition at the Royal Palace, Amsterdam, NL (2018). Eisma’s work is included in private and public collections, which include: Kiran Nadar Museum, New Dehli, IN; Textielmuseum, Tilburg, NL, De Vleeshal, Middelburg, NL; AkzoNobel Art Foundation, Amsterdam, NL; Fries Museum, Friesland, NL.