Residencies & Awards

2023–now

Member Society of the Arts (part of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences)

2013

Residency Tembe Art Centre, Moengo, Surinam

2009–10

Residency ISCP, New York, USA

Solo Exhibitions

2021–22

Some of My Souls, Art Institute MELLY, NL

2021

Something Still Comes Back at Matthew Brown Los Angeles USA

2019–20

Women Make History. Feminism in the Age of Transnationalism, Haifa Museum of Art, ISR. Curator Svetlana Reingold.

 

Blues Before Sunrise, Museum Kranenburgh, Bergen, NL. Curator: Mariette Dölle, Marie Stel

2019

Measurement of Presence, Dutch Pavilion, Venice Biennale, with Remy Jungerman, curator : Benno Tempel

2017

Study in Black Modernity & Symposium “Becoming More”, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven

2015

Iris Kensmil @ Club Solo, Breda, Netherlands i.c.w. Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, catalogue

2014

Shifting Colours, with Willem de Rooij, Tropenmuseum Amsterdam

2013

Granman Oso, Marowijne Art Park, Contemporary Art Museum Moengo, Suriname

2008

Handwriting on the wall, Jan Cunen Museum, Oss, curator René Pingen

 

Get up, Stand up, Galerie Ferdinand van Dieten, Amsterdam

Group Exhibitions

2024

De Schepping van de Wetenschap, Museum Catharijne Convent Utrecht

2023–24

Tonia. Model en Activiste, Museum Singer, Laren

2022–23

When Things Become Beings, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam

 

The New Women, Singer Museum Laren NL

2022

Archiving Future History @ The Black Archives @ Documenta 15, Kassel DE

2021–now

Delinking and Relinking in the Van Abbemuseum Collection

 

Tomorrow is a Different Day, Collection 1980-nu, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam

2020–21

1 Million Rosen für Angela Davis, Albertinum Dresden, DE, curator Kathleen Reinhardt

2020

Here. Black in Rembrandt’s Time, Museum Het Rembrandshuis, Amsterdam, NL

2019–20

Neither Black/Red/Yellow Nor Women, Times Art Center Berlin, curator: Nikita Yingqian Cai and Xiaoyu Weng

2018

Line Up, the Power of Drawing, Centraal Museum Utrecht

2017–18

Black & Revolutionary, the Story of Hermina and Otto Huiswoud, The Black Archives, Veronsur, Amsterdam

2017

Evolution/Revolution/Revision, Moscow Biennial, Bread House, Tsaritsino Museum

2014

How Far, How Near. The World in the Stedelijk, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, curator Jelle Bouwhuis

2013

Out of History in: The Golden Century, Trial Ground of our World, Amsterdam Museum, curator Annemarie de Wildt

2012

Time Trade Travel, SMBA, Amsterdam (cat), Nubuku Foundation, Accra Ghana, curator: Jelle Bouwhuis, Kofi Setordji

2011

Mutualism, Co-Prosperity, Chicago (cat.)

 

The last exhibition at Galerie Ferdinand van Dieten, Amsterdam (cat.)

2010

Monumentalisme – History, national Identity and contemporary Art, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (cat.)

2009

Wakaman: drawing lines – connecting dots, curators Remy Jungerman, Gillion Grantsaan, Fort Zeelandia, Paramaribo, Suriname (cat.)

2008

Black is beautiful, curator Esther Schreuders, De Nieuwe Kerk, Amsterdam (cat.)

2005

Respect! Forms of community, Contemporary art from the Netherlands, curator Roel Arkesteijn, Musée Dar Si Saïd & Palais el-Badi, Marrakech, Morocco (cat.)

2003

Royal Grant for Painting, Koninklijk Paleis, Amsterdam

Collections

2002–now

works in public collections, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam / Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven / FRAC Picardie, Amiens (FR) / Centraal Museum, Utrecht / Museum Arnhem/ Defares Collection, Amsterdam / The Black Archives, Amsterdam / Schiedam Museum / Museum Catharijne Convent, Utrecht / Stedelijk Museum, Kampen / Need for Legacy|ITA / VU-Special Collections / ProWinkoProArt, Amsterdam / Kunstmuseum Den Haag, The Hague / Amsterdam Museum / Contemporary Art Museum Moengo, Surinam / Museum Jan Cunen, Oss / Surinaams Museum, Paramaribo, Surinam / Museum Het Valkhof, Nijmegen / Dordrechts Museum, Dordrecht / Océ Kunstcollectie, Venlo.

Activities

2024–now

Advisor at Mondriaan Foundation

2021

Performance: One Step backward, Two Step Forward

2021–now

Member of Supervisory Board of Manifesta

2018–now

Member of Board of Artists Initiative W’139, Amsterdam

Bibliography

2019

Iris Kensmil, Blues before Sunrise, catalogue Solo-exhibition Museum Kranenburgh, Bergen, NL

 

The Measurement of Presence, Venice 2019, catalogue for Dutch Pavilion at Biennale Venice 2019.

2016

Diary of a Chronicler, an online contribution to the Salon at Mister Motley

2015

Iris Kensmil @ Club Solo, Breda, Netherlands, exhibition catalogue

2008

Negroes [are oké], 2008, monograph