A painted cardboard box, floating on the wall, lettering the word BOUNTY. There is a kind of methodological care in its making, a slowness that attends to every crease, seam, and fragment of tape with such precision that the painting becomes nearly indistinguishable from the object it replicates. Yet the result is not an illusion in the traditional sense, not a trick of the eye or a desire to deceive, but something closer to restoration, as if the box had been returned to itself through the act of mimicry. Nothing appears to have changed, and yet everything has passed through the quiet insistence of being remade by hand.
The underside of the box is left unpainted, a minor yet deliberate disruption within an otherwise meticulous exercise. It leaves behind a kind of proof or perhaps a shadow, an admission of the painting’s artifice that refuses to be concealed. It is a moment of exposure, like the neck of a baroque doll, where the image begins to give way to the structure that holds it. What initially appears to be a simple act of repetition slowly reveals a boundary. This introduces something archival, a texture like fashion design from the 1980s that often produces work that was both self-aware and quietly resistant to the logic of its own system. Margiela, to mention the most obvious example, often used vintage or found pieces, deconstructing and reconstructing them to re-evaluate the purpose and construction of the clothing.
A distant echo of that ambivalent play with the superficiality of appearances, the desire to create an image so idealized and detached that it becomes a mirror of its own flatness. But here, the gesture feels more careful, less performative. The idealized image is not celebrated or undermined, but held gently in place. It is repeated, not to erase the original, but to touch upon it.
On the floor nearby, a small makeshift screen has been fashioned from a flipped-up electrical outlet, repurposed to catch the soft glow of a video projection. What plays is a sequence of puffed-out smoke rings, each one emerging into view, expanding momentarily, and then fading into the air, only to return again in the same smooth, continuous rhythm. The source of the smoke, the mouth, the breath, the body, has been removed entirely from the frame. What remains is the afterimage, an impression of presence left behind, drifting for a moment before dissolving again into nothing.
The background reveals the edges of a studio, sound and daylight shifting across surfaces, objects quietly repositioned, time slipping forward in the margins. The smoke moves in circles, and time moves around it, not in narrative but in accumulation. It becomes unclear whether the piece is capturing time or simply marking it, an act of passing and being passed by.
Much like the smoke rings, the outline of a construction site fence on the opposite wall is not quite physical, perhaps only just on the verge. The line is neither declared nor argued. It hesitates. It doesn’t point toward a structure so much as to its absence, to its ghost. Whatever division it once signified has softened, and what remains now reads less as a statement than as a residue. The residue of what, exactly, I find myself asking. Of the metal fence itself, or the latent violence and order it was meant to impose, or maybe the geometric form and rhythm it imprints onto the wall. For a moment, it recalls something closer to op-art, unsettling the eye, making me trip slightly, and in that instant, pulling me out of the windowless art deco octagon that houses the exhibition, interrupting the spell of the space, and reminds me of my act of looking in the first place.
In one of the other chambers, one of four in the gallery, there are two pencil drawings depicting the outlines of flower vases. The forms are simple, almost diagrammatic, and emerge from a process characteristic of projecting light onto an object and tracing the shadows it casts. These drawings don’t stylize or elaborate upon the subject. They follow the light, and allow the light to determine what appears. In some, the vases take on the likeness of trees or abstract silhouettes, but the work resists metaphor. It stays close to its procedure: light, shadow, outline.
These vase drawings do not seek to fix the object, nor do they reduce it to pure image. Instead, they register a transformation, what was solid becomes spectral, what was object becomes trace. What remains is not a depiction, but a quiet interval between the thing and its projection, an image that refers back not just to what was seen, but to the conditions and duration of its being seen.
In each of the four galleries is a line of midsize red glass frames, centered, as if spinning fast enough to form a circle. The framed photographs depict a young girl growing in her everyday life. They seem to have been taken over a period of years without any plan, other than the steady accumulation of attention and looking.
What matters is not a decision made out of urgency, but out of habit. Their meaning doesn’t sit in any single image, but in the span they describe together. If this counts as work, it’s not because of what was made, but because it didn’t stop. Another quiet form of persistence.
That same persistence moves through the exhibition. Not as repetition, but as return. All the works stay near their materials, their gestures, their limits. Like stones in a field unexplained, not insisting upon anything, and simply a part of the terrain.
Daan van Golden, Fiona Connor, Gianna Surangkanjanajai, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Laurent Dupont, Lourdes Castro
Daan van Golden (b. 1936, Rotterdam – d. 2017, Schiedam)
Was a Dutch artist whose work is difficult to characterize. He blends elements of minimalism and conceptual art with everyday life. His career, which spanned several decades, was marked by an exploration of appropriation, repetition, and transformation. Initially recognized for his meticulous recreations of fabric patterns and commercial designs, van Golden moved to Tokyo in 1963, where his paintings began to incorporate influences from Japanese culture and everyday life. His work is characterized by a continuous dialogue between image, time, and context, often revisiting the same motifs and forms. Van Golden's art focuses more on the process than on the final idea.
His work is represented in several collections. Among them are the Art Institute of Chicago, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, and the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, among others.
+ Keep ReadingFiona Connor (b. 1981, Auckland)
Is a New Zealand artist who lives and works in Los Angeles. Her work investigates the intersection between public space, architecture, and memory. Known for her site-specific installations and meticulous replicas of everyday objects, Connor explores themes such as repetition, identity, and the passage of time. Her work often involves the social and historical contexts of the spaces where she works, blurring the boundary between the real and the reproduction. Through detailed reconstructions of architectural elements and objects, Connor's art transforms the familiar into something unexpected, inviting the public to rethink their relationship with the built environment.
His work is represented in several collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington, and the Auckland Art Gallery, among others.
Gianna Surangkanjanajai (b. 1991, Cologne)
Is a German artist living and working in New York. Her recent solo exhibitions include shows at le vite, Milan (2024); Peter Mertes Stipendium, Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn (2023); Alma Sarif, Brussels (2022); and MARQUISE, Lisbon (2020).
Her recent group exhibitions include Hard Ground, MoMa PS1, New York (2024); le vite, Milan (2024); No Cookies. No Cake, UA26, Vienna (2024); OTHERWHEN, Croy Nielsen, Vienna (2024); In the Shadows of Tall Necessities, Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn (2022); and Manhattan, Claude Balls Int., New York (2022).
Laurent Dupont (b. 1976, Liège)
Is an artist who lives and works in Brussels. His works have been presented in several solo exhibitions, including Sleepworld - Gauli Zitter, Brussels (2023); S'il vous plaît! - Plymouth Rock, Zurich (2023); The Creature - Kunstverein Nürnberg (2021); A Cover up - Braunsfelder, Cologne (duo with Lisa Jo, 2020); Veranda - Gaudel de Stampa, Paris (duo with Michael Van Den Abeele, 2019); Paintings - SVIT Gallery, Prague / Cukrovarnická 39, Prague - Galerie Meyer Kainer, Vienna (both duos with Lucy McKenzie, 2015-2016); and Objets aus Wien - Galerie Nächst St. Stephan, Vienna (2014).
He has also participated in several group exhibitions, including at the Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens (2024); Simian, Copenhagen (2024); dépendance gallery at CFA Milan (2024); Nousmoules / L'étoile endettée (2020); Galerie Bernhard, Zurich (2019); Etablissement d'En Face, Brussels (2018); CAC Vilnius (2015); and WIELS, Brussels (2013). Among the public collections that include his work, KANAL–Centre Pompidou, Brussels, stands out.
Lourdes Castro (born 1930 in Funchal – died 2022 in Funchal)
Was a Portuguese artist known for her exploration of light, shadow and form. A central figure in the development of modern art in Portugal, Castro's work encompasses various media, including painting, sculpture and installation. She is particularly known for her use of silhouettes and the interaction between light and shadow. Her art explores the relationship between the tangible and the intangible through minimalist but deeply impressive compositions.
Her works are represented in various collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum (London), the Museum of Modern Art (Havana), the Museum of Contemporary Art (Belgrade), the National Museum in Warsaw, the National Museum in Wrocław and Łódź, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Centre for Modern Art (Lisbon) and the Serralves Foundation (Porto).
- ResumeFICHA TÉCNICA
EXHIBITION
ARTISTS
Daan van Golden, Fiona Connor, Gianna Surangkanjanajai, Laurent Dupont, Lourdes Castro
CURATED BY
MARQUISE
PRODUTION
Susana Sameiro, Sílvia Gomes, Denise Cunha Silva
ASSEMBLY
Miguel Marques, Renato Ferrão, Rui Azevedo
MICROSITE
TEXT
Gianna Surangkanjanajai
PHOTOS
Carolina Ribeiro
EDITION
Carolina Luz
CONTENT REVIEW
Helena César
DESIGN AND WEBSITE
Studio Maria João Macedo & Queo