Overnight, a mushroom breaks through the earth. Potawatomi has a word for the force behind it: puhpowee. From Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer.

That force gives this exhibition its name.

PUHPOWEE brings together paintings born through movement, material and response. Works that hold traces of what has happened and space for what is still becoming.

FROM THE GROUND UP

I build my wooden panels, stretch cotton canvas over them and make my own oil paints with pigments ground at De Kat, a windmill on the Zaanse Schans.

Found feathers and flowers become my brushes. Their shapes guide the gesture. I move, wipe and shape, responding to the marks already there. Each decision changes what can happen next.

The work carries the place it comes from, the movement of my body and the character of the materials themselves.

BETWEEN THE WORKS

Paintings meet in pairs, sequences and constellations. A gesture travels between panels. A colour changes beside another. The spaces between them become part of the composition.

As you move through the exhibition, those relationships shift. You bring your own history, attention and associations into the encounter.

PUHPOWEE — Where Language Fails
9–13 December 2026

Opening drinks: Wednesday 9 December, 6 pm
Open daily 12–6 pm, on 9 December until 10 pm
Free entry

Appie Gallery
Ten Katestraat 18A-HS
1053 CG Amsterdam

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