Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen presents Figure, Field, Grid by Mandy El-Sayegh, the inaugural exhibition in the museum’s new Depot Solo series. Marking the artist’s first solo exhibition in the Netherlands, the project transforms a gallery within the Depot into an immersive, site-specific installation.
Drawing inspiration from artworks in the museum’s collection, El-Sayegh presents a new body of work that brings together a wide range of materials, including newspaper clippings, anatomy books, screen prints, latex sheets, and Arabic calligraphy by her father. Through layering and juxtaposition, these materials operate as both visual and conceptual strata, creating a space in which meaning remains fluid and continually reconfigured.
Central to El-Sayegh’s practice is an investigation into how subjectivity is shaped by context. Her recurring concepts of “attachment” and “skins” address ideas of contact, vulnerability, and the porous boundary between inside and outside. These concerns are not only represented visually but are also experienced physically by visitors. Pigmented latex is poured directly onto the gallery floor, where it gradually wears away through contact with the public, underscoring the work’s impermanence and sensitivity to interaction.
El-Sayegh’s use of latex reflects both the material’s organic, mutable qualities and its historical implications. As a globally traded commodity, latex carries associations with colonial extraction and exploitation—an underlying narrative that informs the work’s material and political dimensions.
Figure, Field, Grid inaugurates Depot Solo, a new multi-year exhibition series at the Depot, made possible in part by Ammodo Art. The series provides a platform for artists who have not previously held a solo exhibition in the Netherlands, inviting them to realise ambitious, site-specific installations. Positioned as an analogue counterpoint to the rise of digital immersive experiences, Depot Solo foregrounds physical engagement with space, material, and meaning, with each edition shaped by a distinct artistic approach.
Mandy El-Sayegh: Figure, Field, Grid is on view at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen until 8 March 2026.
