Strangely Familiar
Aldo Bakker
25 October – 23 December 2026

Looiersgracht 60 is pleased to share that forthcoming October, we will present Strangely Familiar, a major solo show by Dutch artist and designer Aldo Bakker. The exhibition marks a decisive new chapter in the development of his longstanding oeuvre, following his solo exhibition Containing Content held at Looiersgracht 60 in 2015.

Rather than resolving problems, as design is so often expected to do, Bakker’s extensive oeuvre defies categorical associations and established conventions. While Containing Content centred on five pouring vessels that operated as individual protagonists within the expansive space, uncovering the tension between function and form, Strangely Familiar both builds upon and departs from that initial inquiry. Moving beyond the intimate presence of these vessels, a new sculptural body of work – increasingly large in scale – takes over the former factory floors and is presented publicly for the very first time.

In his creative philosophy, Bakker does not so much impose form upon the world, rather, he simply attends to what is already present within it. Each object first presents itself as an impression gathered from its surroundings – a gesture – that takes shape in a line or in the relation between several lines. Through a prolonged process of development and repetition, the form gradually acquires an independence of its own, marked by the coherence of its constituent elements.

In Strangely Familiar, objects enter fully into their own terms, liberating themselves entirely from questions of functionality and conditions of legitimacy. Scale becomes a means of release. In a carefully balanced performance, forces of line, mass, colour and texture gradually assert themselves into being with greater autonomy, eventually entering into dialogue with their environment. Soft in contour, yet tenacious, their spatial presence quietly invites reflection – strangely familiar, they emerge less as authored creations to be understood and defined, and more as a presence to be re-encountered. By presenting works as self-determined characters in their own right, viewers find themselves placed into a new position in relation to the object – one that no longer attempts to appoint or assign value, but attunes itself to what the object seeks to reveal.

More than ten years after Containing Content, this renewed collaboration brings Bakker back to Looiersgracht 60 in a setting that is both familiar and newly transformed.

The exhibition is curated by Soraya Notoadikusumo and Nadine Snijders, founders of Looiersgracht 60. The show opens on Sunday, October 25, 2026, and is interwoven with an engaging public programme. More information will be announced soon.

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