the people

the people is excited to invite you to the first solo show of German multidisciplinary artist Michael Runkel, on the 4th of June in the Remise located at Tweede Leeghwaterstraat 5B, 1018 RA Amsterdam

The first impression, when looking at Runkel’s show, installed in the one-room gallery, is like looking into the past and the future at once. The room-filling installation transforms the exhibition space into what looks like the command centre of a sealed-off, technical environment. The artist gives no indication of the functions of the technology on display or the wider context in which this room exists.

Michael Runkel (1980) trained as a carpenter and is a self-taught artist. Since 2013, he has been working at Lebenshilfe Bad-Dürkheim in various positions – as a carpenter, at the Kleinsägmühlerhof organic farm and in the media workshop. Since 2015, he has also been pursuing his artistic projects at the art workshop Malwerkstatt sheltered atelier. Runkel draws, paints and writes. In his ongoing sci-fi series, he frequently plays with the aesthetics of distant futures – drawing on “borrowed fantasies” from the pop cultural narratives of his own childhood to tell prophecies of environmental or social disaster which are based on his observations of contemporary realities.

Michael Runkel is a member of a mixed-abled performance group. His work has recently been exhibited at PORT25 – Raum für Gegenwartskunst in Mannheim and the Galerie Alte Turnhalle in Bad Dürkheim. He also appeared on stage in Doris Uhlich’s production of U need is love. Runkel lives in Altleiningen, Germany.

Download press release.

Malkovich Malkovich

with Miglė Lukoševičiūtė
14.05. – 17.05.2026
Opening: 14 May, 2026, 12 pm

the people is pleased to invite you to the first exhibition outside of our Arnhem space, an exhibition on the blue and white tiled floor of our hosts BarGum in Antwerp, BE as part of Antwerp Art Weekend. Well packed up in a crate, this exhibiton features two works by Miglė Lukoševičiūtė, a writer and graphic designer concerned with melodrama. Inside the space of BarGum, we see ourselves a Trojan horse, which was a gift. And a gift is always something good.

Documentation coming soon.

Download press release.
Download exhibition text.

Download BarGum's poster for the event, designed by Lisa Lagova.

For additional information about the event, please turn to the program on BarGum’s Instagram.

Launch of: Annual Report #1 "Secondary Material"

Book release: 16.05.2025 6PM at BarGum Antwerp, BE as part of Antwerp Art Weekend

The first Annual Report of the people titled "Secondary Material" will feature:
A critical look back at our first year of operations with show reviews by Tim Bartel, Sanie Irsay, Vivien Kämpf, Lisa Lagova, Miglė Lukoševičiūtė.
A making sense of our exhibition space in a survey by Anton Stuckardt
An audit of earnings and investments in a financial report by Nuno Beijinho.

The Annual Report #1 is edited and designed by Jonathan Blaschke and Jan Schmidt Bist.

This Launch on the 16th of May will be celebrated with a number of readings of texts from the report:
Miglė Lukoševičiūtė: My Contribution…; Tim Bartel: I Think There’s Something You Should Know (May 28,2025); Lisa Lagova: Field Trip; Nuno Beijinho: Strategic and Financial Report for the year ended 30 September 2025

The people will additionally be presenting a exhibition in collaboration with our hosts BarGum during the Antwerp Art Week Opening on the 14th of May titled Malkovich Malkovich.

Download press release.
Download BarGum's poster for the event, designed by Lisa Lagova.

For additional information about the event, please turn to the program on BarGum’s Instagram.

Summer Break

the people is taking a break during summer.
We hope you do so as well.

Greetings from Binche

Groupe Non Connu
05.06. – 26.06.2025
Opening: 5 June, 2025, 6:30 pm

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the people is pleased to invite you to “Greetings from Binche” the first exhibition of Groupe Non Connu in the Netherlands.

The exhibition continues the story of the imposing monolith “Rouge Royal” – a five cubic meter block of Belgian marble previously exhibited at Spare Wheel, Brussels. The work has since become a temporary part of and is currently stored in the collection of the Geological Survey of Belgium.

On request of the artists, the piece’s new iteration at the people will take place within the frame of this collection, relocating the entire archive from the storage in Binche to the gallery space for the time of the show. The context of sampling and cataloguing natural materials, but also the storage space as an in-between site where exhibits are both accessible and hidden from public view, are central aspects to this work, Group Non Connu have continuously developed over the past twelve months. Repositioning the piece to Arnhem now adds one more layer to its shifting implications: Like a monumental chamaeleon, it changes smoothly between raw material, sculpture, geological sample and travelling archive, without ever altering its marbled surface.

text by Johanna Schäfer and Jonathan Blaschke

Groupe Non Connu is the collaborative work of painters Stans Vrijsen and Sofia Boubolis. Through exercises in imitation and fabulation, the duo researches and highlights narrative qualities of their profession as well as their protagonist: the ‘Rouge Royal’, a kind of marble (or limestone) which is quarried in Belgium.

the people wants to thank Marleen De Ceukelaire and the Geological Survey of Belgium for making this show possible.

Download press release.
Download exhibition text.

Download postcard invite.

Power Grip

Jonathan Blaschke
28.05. – 03.06.2025
Opening: May 28, 2025, 7:30 pm

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There is evil in this world,
I’ve seen it.
At a certain point in your life,
you realise you need to
get it out of yourself.
This doesn’t mean being selfish,
a lot of pain comes
from attachments.
I’m sure you did a great job.

Impossible to look inside,
but you’ve felt it all,
for in our slumber we do not speak.
In between breaths
a tiny meditation,
eyes stay wide open,
too scared to become prey,
ready to go back on the run.

As a child it kept you
from stopping to breathe,
now you can do that all by yourself,
without thinking, just like lying.
This fear is real,
you’re not just making it up,
it’s hard to admit.
You’ve been telling everyone
you’re trying to forget
and that you’re letting go,
but there is always something in the trash that we still need.
All that is long gone,
very long gone,
oh so long gone.
Take one last look.

the people announces that the aim of this press release was never to be completely transparent about what is actually going on.
For this exhibition, we are the kind of animal that likes a good zoo.

text by the artist

Click here to watch video documentation.

Download press release.
Download exhibition text.

Ter um banco inteiro ao seu lado é uma decisão muito particular.
[Having an entire bank by your side is a very personal decision.]

Nuno Beijinho
15.04. – 05.05.2025
Opening: Apr 15, 2025, 6:30 pm,
free drink “Office Siren" by Estere Betija Grāvere and peanuts

Caption here

Two men in black and blue stripes.
A men-sized plant, a table top that could be either mirror or ocean.
Two men and their reflections.
A third person whose point of view is relevant only as a spectator.

For this exhibition, I think, it would be good to have a feeling, some kind of sentiment to accompany you on your way here, so you get the most out of it and will not be sidetracked into unhelpful expectations.
Imagine looking up at night at the towering facades of one financial district or other. Faced with the brightly-lit office scenes framed by the glass architecture, there is no doubt that you are meant to see. Trust is the highest commodity in a world built on the investments of people to be persuaded that their banks, managers and consultants are unerringly competent and reliable. Having an entire bank by your side is a very personal decision, after all.

Nuno Beijinho aptly negotiates the codes of seeing, and being seen in a semi-transparent world of high stakes in his room-filling installation at the people gallery. Converted from white cube to high-class office interior, the exhibition space presents a look behind the deliberate, shiny facades and the presumptions of calm, elegant proficiency built into them. The spec- tator faces inside, the people inside never face out. Wouldn’t do to be caught caring too much about what people see in them.

Two men shaking hands.
Closing a deal, sharing some small talk, sharing a moment, talking business, talking shop, talking dirty… This is a picture only if someone is watching. Otherwise it’s only two men in expensive clothes.
It’s too dark to make out the details, but if I were to costume-design, the colour palette would be white and black and blues – soft blue shirts, navy blue jackets, night-blue skies, blue pens on white paper, blue collar against white skin, blue college logos on heather-grey sweats in the occasional gym bag: Oxford blue, Cambridge blue, Yale blue. Against all the glass and the sky and the chrome, blue is barely even a colour, merely a variation on the interior design. A very typical and forgettable look is perfect.

Two men in a too-bright glasshouse.
The scene is set on a smoking hot summer day. Do not let the cool colours fool you. Looks are deceiving and these two are professionals, never showing their true colours.

the people announces {the aim of the press release} was never to be completely transparent about what’s actually going on.
For this exhibition, I think it would be good to have a bit of juicy rumor, some insightful gossip about what happens behind closed doors.

Text written by Johanna Schäfer.

Download press release.
Download exhibition leaflet.

Print advertisement in the art auction catalogue Works from the Collection of Holly van Houten.

General Renovations

Heating has been installed in the gallery space, the tapwater is still undrinkable.
That’s all really.

Download floorplan.

Fools are everywhere. But are the fools of today the same as the fools of yesteryear?

20.12. – 30.12.2024
Opening: Dec 20, 2024, 6 pm;
free beer

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Fools are everywhere. But are the fools of today the same as the fools of yesteryear?
Jonathan Blaschke, 2024. graphite on paper, tape.
Motif after Two Chained Monkeys (1562) by Bruegel the Elder, (re-)drawn by Sanie Irsay.

Download exhibition leaflet.