Mandy El-Sayegh exhibits at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen's Depot

31-07-2025 Jeroen Veenstra

Mandy El-Sayegh is known for her layered, complex approach to painting, installation and performance. For har first solo exhibition in the Netherlands, she transforms one of the halls of het Depot into a large-scale, all-encompassing installation that immerses visitors in her world. The exhibition can be seen from 1 November to 8 March.

El-Sayegh designs an environment in which the process of making her work is exposed: language, material and meaning are broken down and rebuilt layer by layer. This fits perfectly with the museum principle of the Depot: making visible what normally remains hidden.

For this new commission, El-Sayegh presents an installation in which she opens up the anatomy of her paintings with new work: collages constructed from screen prints and hand-painted elements, incorporating both art-historical and contemporary references, including reproductions of old master drawings from Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen's collection. The result is a space that simultaneously functions as an exhibition and a laboratory: fragmentary, intimate and immersive.

Depot Solo

This exhibition marks the beginning of a new multi-year series at the Depot in which contemporary artists are invited to develop immersive installations. This series -co-facilitated by Ammodo Art- offers artists, who have not previously had a solo exhibition in the Netherlands, a platform for experimentation: an analogue counterpoint to the growing popularity of digital immersive environments.

Photos Mandy El-Sayegh by Abtin Eshraghi

About Mandy El-Sayegh

Mandy El-Sayegh (born 1985, Malaysia) lives and works in London. She obtained her BA in fine art from the University of Westminster in 2007, followed by an MA in painting from the Royal College of Art in 2009. Her first institutional solo exhibition, the installation Cite Your Sources, created especially for Chisenhale Gallery, took place in London in 2019. Her work has since been presented internationally in places such as Los Angeles and Beirut. She previously created a specific work for EVERYTHING IS TRUE - NOTHING IS PERMITTED at Brutus.

603363 Mandy El Sayegh  Photo Abtin Eshraghi Courtesy The Artist F832c3 Original 1753431909 (1)

Exhibition

Auteur

Jeroen Veenstra

Geboren en getogen in Rotterdam en al sinds 2001 als journalist schrijvend over festivals, cultuur, kunst, muziek, uitgaan, horeca en lifestyle in de stad. Ziet het als zijn persoonlijke en hartstochtelijke opdracht om altijd van alles op de hoogte te zijn in Rotterdam. Handig, aangezien hij hoofdredacteur online bij Uitagenda Rotterdam is. Vanuit zijn thuisbasis op het randje van het centrum en Crooswijk bezoekt hij in functie, maar zeker ook privé, vooral nieuwe initiatieven die zijn favoriete stad weer leuker maken.