2025-11-27 | Meschac Gaba: at the group exhibition at Lumen Travo gallery

Our fellow Meschac Gaba is a part of a group exhibition 'Back and Forth and Back Again 40 Years ' at Lumen Travo gallery in Amsterdam.

Lumen Travo gallery celebrates its 40th anniversary and presents a group exhibition that honors the gallery’s legacy and celebrates its deep-rooted influence on Amsterdam’s contemporary art scene since the early 1980s.

Over the span of four months, the gallery will showcase a series of evolving presentations. Iconic works from the history of the gallery, including pieces from the collection of its founder, Marianne van Tilborg, will be reintroduced and placed in dialogue with contemporary works, reflecting the gallery’s ongoing commitment to artistic exchange and critical reflection.

The first chapter focuses on politically engaged practices, a defining thread in Lumen Travo’s program since its founding. By bringing together works by Georges Adéagbo, Atousa Bandeh, Zarina Bhimji, Ricardo Brey, Jimmie Durham, Michel François, Meschac Gaba, Ni Haifeng, Monali Meher, Shirin Neshat and Thierry Oussou, the exhibition invited relfection on postcolonialism, identity, migration and labor through a diversity of artistic voices and perspectives.

In 1985, Marianne van Tilborg founded the gallery in her own apartment, above the Athenaeum Bookstore on Spui. From the outset she described it not so much as a conventional commercial gallery but rather “a salon where different disciplines meet.” Theatre‑makers, musicians, filmmakers and fashion designers would come through in the early days alongside visual artists.

Seven years later the gallery relocated to Paulus Potterstraat (opposite the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam), and in 1995 it established itself at its current venue on the Lijnbaansgracht, a canal in the centre of Amsterdam surrounded by other contemporary art galleries and cultural spaces. This area has become a lively and important part of the city’s art scene, offering a more publicly visible face to the gallery’s identity.

Under van Tilborg’s direction, Lumen Travo developed a reputation for presenting international and non‑Western‑based artists, often engaging with issues of identity, post‑colonialism and global art dialogues. The gallery has been instrumental in introducing artists such as Shirin Neshat, Otobong Nkanga, Monali Meher and Meschac Gaba to the international contemporary art network. By proposing strong and different artistic views – which are not limiting themselves to the solely perspective of the West – Lumen Travo carries on a visual conversation with eyes, heart and mind open to the whole world.

You can see the exhibition until 21 February 2026

Photo: Installation view, 2025, Lumen Travo gallery. Credits: Giovanni Nardi

More information here