14.06-27.09.2026
MATERIAL WORLDS
25th anniversary Lustwarande
Participating artists:
Elena Aitzkoa (ES) – Hiva Alizadeh (IR) – Patricia Ayres (US) – Phyllida Barlow (UK) – Paloma Bosquê (BR) – Yaïr Callender (NL) – Nicole Eisenman (US) – Maria Ferreira Silva (PT) – Meri Karapetyan (AM) – Félix Keslassy (FR) – Kokou Ferdinand Makouvia (TG) – Su Melo (CL) – Saad Qureshi (PK/UK) – Ugo Rondinone (CH) – Chloé Royer (FR) – Bosco Sodi (MX) – Martin Toloku (GH) – Katleen Vinck (BE) – Jan Eric Visser (NL)
Concept and selection: Chris Driessen & Manon Braat (chief curator contemporary art Museum Arnhem)
Curator: Chris Driessen
In 2026, Lustwarande celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary with MATERIAL WORLDS, an exhibition that provides a current picture of the state of affairs within international sculpture and in which materiality is the leading theme. MATERIAL WORLDS is the fifteenth edition of Lustwarande.
Contemporary art reflects urgent societal issues such as climate change, ecological justice, postcolonialism, identity, and the increasing influence of technology and artificial intelligence. At the same time, there is a striking revaluation of materiality, craftsmanship, and physical production processes within the visual arts.
Ugo Rondinone - white blue monk (2020)
courtesy the artist & Gladstone Gallery
Materials such as wool, felt, silk, rubber, clay, natural stone, and wood currently occupy a prominent place in art, architecture, and design. What was long considered old-fashioned is now seen as innovative and meaningful. Artists combine these materials with local crafts, traditions, and ancestral knowledge. Indigenous values are being re-emphasized. Sustainable material processes are being explored and applied, sometimes in combination with contemporary computer-controlled techniques. This leads to a wide range of sculptural approaches, from hybrid combinations of plastics, liquids, and chemicals to a reappraisal of traditional materials.
Phyllida Barlow - PRANK: hoax; 2022/23 (2022-2023) & Nicole Eisenman - American Goth (2018)
Courtesy The Phyllida Barlow Estate and Hauser & Wirth © Phyllida Barlow Estate
Courtesy Nicole Eisenman and Hauser & Wirth © Nicole Eisenman, Photo: Lance Brewer
The exhibition is rooted in current philosophical and ecological frameworks, including the debate surrounding the Anthropocene and the ideas of thinkers like Bruno Latour, Donna Haraway, and Karen Barad. MATERIAL WORLDS also demonstrates how artists are rethinking the relationship between human and matter and how art can contribute to a renewed awareness of our interconnectedness with all organic and inorganic entities on Earth. The title MATERIAL WORLDS refers to this physical, investigative, and engaged sculptural practice.
Bosco Sodi - Untitled (2016)
courtesy Bosco Sodi Studio
MATERIAL WORLDS brings together nineteen international artists working at the intersection of formal sculpture, craft, traditional and local knowledge, recycling, and contemporary technology. Among them are world-renowned artists such as Phyllida Barlow †, Nicole Eisenman, Ugo Rondinone, and Bosco Sodi. But MATERIAL WORLDS also presents a large number of new talents from all over the world, including from countries that are not yet on the map in terms of visual arts, such as Armenia, Chile, Ghana, Iran, Pakistan, and Togo.