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Iris Kensmil, Something Still Comes Back, 2021

Iris Kensmil

Something Still Comes Back, 2021

Installation view

Iris Kensmil, Something Still Comes Back, 2021

Iris Kensmil

Something Still Comes Back, 2021

Installation view

Iris Kensmil, Something Still Comes Back, 2021

Iris Kensmil

Something Still Comes Back, 2021

Installation view

Iris Kensmil, Something Still Comes Back, 2021

Iris Kensmil

Something Still Comes Back, 2021

Installation view

Iris Kensmil, Something Still Comes Back, 2021

Iris Kensmil

Something Still Comes Back, 2021

Installation view

Iris Kensmil, Something Still Comes Back, 2021

Iris Kensmil

Something Still Comes Back, 2021

Installation view

Iris Kensmil, Something Still Comes Back, 2021

Iris Kensmil

Something Still Comes Back, 2021

Installation view

Iris Kensmil, Something Still Comes Back, 2021

Iris Kensmil

Something Still Comes Back, 2021

Installation view

Iris Kensmil, Something Still Comes Back, 2021

Iris Kensmil

Something Still Comes Back, 2021

Installation view

Iris Kensmil, Something Still Comes Back, 2021

Iris Kensmil

Something Still Comes Back, 2021

Installation view

Iris Kensmil, Something Still Comes Back, 2021

Iris Kensmil

Something Still Comes Back, 2021

Installation view

Iris Kensmil, Something Still Comes Back, 2021

Iris Kensmil

Something Still Comes Back, 2021

Installation view

Iris Kensmil, Something Still Comes Back, 2021

Iris Kensmil

Something Still Comes Back, 2021

Installation view

Iris Kensmil, Something Still Comes Back, 2021

Iris Kensmil

Something Still Comes Back, 2021

Installation view

Iris Kensmil, Something Still Comes Back, 2021

Iris Kensmil

Something Still Comes Back, 2021

Installation view

Iris Kensmil, Something Still Comes Back, 2021

Iris Kensmil

Something Still Comes Back, 2021

Installation view

Iris Kensmil, Something Still Comes Back, 2021

Iris Kensmil

Something Still Comes Back, 2021

Installation view

Iris Kensmil Zaïre, 2021

Iris Kensmil
Zaïre, 2021
Gouache on paper
11 3/4 x 8 1/4 in / 29.7 x 21 cm
Framed: 11 3/4 x 15 1/8 x 1 1/4 in / 29.8 x 38 x 3 cm

Iris Kensmil Helené, 2021

Iris Kensmil
Helené, 2021
Gouache on paper
11 3/4 x 8 1/4 in / 29.7 x 21 cm
Framed: 11 3/4 x 15 1/8 x 1 1/4 in / 29.8 x 38 x 3 cm

Iris Kensmil Study for Angela with Glasses, 2021

Iris Kensmil
Study for Angela with Glasses, 2021
Gouache on paper
11 3/4 x 8 1/4 in / 29.7 x 21 cm
Framed: 11 3/4 x 15 1/8 x 1 1/4 in / 29.8 x 38 x 3 cm

Iris Kensmil Study for Sister Nancy, 2021

Iris Kensmil
Study for Sister Nancy, 2021
Gouache on paper
8 7/8 x 4 3/8 in / 22.4 x 11.2 cm
Framed: 7 x 12 x 1 1/4 in / 17.7 x 30.48 x 3 cm

Iris Kensmil Elmina Dungeon, 2021

Iris Kensmil
Elmina Dungeon, 2021
Gouache on paper
11 3/4 x 8 1/4 in / 29.7 x 21 cm
Framed: 11 3/4 x 15 1/8 x 1 1/4 in / 29.4 x 38 x 3 cm

Iris Kensmil Elmina Gate, 2021

Iris Kensmil
Elmina Gate, 2021
Gouache on paper
8 1/4 x 7 3/8 in / 21 x 18.7 cm
Framed: 10 x 11 x 1 1/4 in / 25.4 x 27.94 x 3 cm

Iris Kensmil The Motorcity is Burning, 2016

Iris Kensmil
The Motorcity is Burning, 2016
Oil on canvas
43 1/4 x 55 1/8 in
110 x 140 cm

Iris Kensmil The New Utopia Begins Here: Claudia Jones, 2018

Iris Kensmil
The New Utopia Begins Here: Claudia Jones, 2018
Oil on linen
61 1/8 x 41 3/8 in
155 x 105 cm

Iris Kensmil The New Utopia Begins Here: bell hooks, 2018

Iris Kensmil
The New Utopia Begins Here: bell hooks, 2018
Oil on canvas
61 1/8 x 45 1/4 in
155 x 115 cm

Iris Kensmil The New Utopia Begins Here: Suzanne Césaire, 2018

Iris Kensmil
The New Utopia Begins Here: Suzanne Césaire, 2018
Oil on canvas
61 1/8 x 41 3/8 in
155 x 105 cm

Iris Kensmil The New Utopia Begins Here: Hermina Huiswoud, 2019

Iris Kensmil
The New Utopia Begins Here: Hermina Huiswoud, 2019
Oil on canvas
61 1/8 x 41 3/8 in
155 x 105 cm

Iris Kensmil Dungeon, 2020

Iris Kensmil
Dungeon, 2020
Oil on canvas
47 1/4 x 65 in
120 x 165 cm

Iris Kensmil Gate, 2020

Iris Kensmil
Gate, 2020
Oil on canvas
47 1/4 x 29 1/2 in
120 x 75 cm

Iris Kensmil Crawl Hole, 2021

Iris Kensmil
Crawl Hole, 2021
Oil on linen
47 1/4 x 65 in
120 x 165 cm

Iris Kensmil Four Woman: Nina Simone, 2020

Iris Kensmil
Four Woman: Nina Simone, 2020
Oil on canvas
45 1/4 x 39 3/8 in
115 x 100 cm

Iris Kensmil Four Woman: Betty Davis, 2020

Iris Kensmil
Four Woman: Betty Davis, 2020
Oil on canvas
45 1/4 x 41 3/8 in
115 x 105 cm

Iris Kensmil Commemoration, 2020

Iris Kensmil
Commemoration, 2020
Oil on canvas
41 3/8 x 63 in
105 x 160 cm

Iris Kensmil Mamphela Ramphele, 2020

Iris Kensmil
Mamphela Ramphele, 2020
Oil on canvas
19 3/4 x 27 1/2 in
50 x 70 cm

Iris Kensmil February 21, 1965, 2017

Iris Kensmil
February 21, 1965, 2017
Oil on canvas
Triptych:
59 x 153 in / 150 x 390 cm
Three panels:
61 x 61 in / 155 x 155 cm
57 x 39 in / 145 x 100 cm
57 x 39 in / 145 x 100 cm

Iris Kensmil Genelva in Black Dress, 2018

Iris Kensmil
Genelva in Black Dress, 2018
Oil on canvas
81 1/2 x 51 1/8 in
207 x 130 cm

Iris Kensmil Four Women: Lauryn Hill, 2020

Iris Kensmil
Four Women: Lauryn Hill, 2020
Oil on linen
43 1/4 x 39 3/8 in
110 x 100 cm

Press Release

Iris Kensmil constructs a visual history of Black Modernity from a Black feminist perspective: with reverence to the experience, activism and intellectual work of Black people in the Western world who have created a new phase of modernity’s emancipatory aims and its progressive utopian claims. Over twenty years of studying, archiving and painting, Kensmil has developed a unique style, by which she accentuates the active role of Black movements and Black intellectuals, writers, musicians, artists and activists who are influencing the shape of our future.

For the sake of Black Modernity and through a decolonial thinking, Kensmil maintains a critical attitude toward modernism with its tendency to objectify and decontextualize the real, and limit the notion of subjectivity to the artist and their narrative “behind” the artwork. Stylistically Kensmil breaks with imagery in which “Black people and especially women are painted mostly as bodies; I paint them as the intellectuals they are.”

In collaboration with The Black Archives in Amsterdam, Kensmil’s research for her 2019 Venice Biennale presentation titled The New Utopia Begins Here resulted in seven portrait paintings of Black female utopians. The New Utopia... focuses mainly—in view of her own background—on the Caribbean, United States and Europe, and was constructed from found images of bell hooks, Claudia Jones, Hermina Huiswoud, Sister Nancy and Suzanne Césaire. The paintings glow, with a soft light emanating from beneath the surface. This technique was used by 19th century Impressionists who discarded the traditional dark undercoat for a layer of white paint. Kensmil’s portraits of Black feminist intellectuals honor and celebrate their place in history. Stylistically, the bright undercoat serves to light up historical figures who have been kept in the shadows, highlighting their importance for our present world. Other works of reverence from this period of research include a portrait of Mamphela Ramphele, and several works of Angela Davis. Notably, Kensmil met Davis in 2018 at The Black Archives, where she exhibited among other works, the drawing, Angela Davis was acquitted June 5th 1972.

The Black Archives was initiated in 2015 by Jessica de Abreu, Mitchell Esajas, Miguel Heilbron and Thiëmo Heilbron, and is currently managed by the New Urban Collective to provide book collections and literature which are not discussed, or rarely discussed, in schools and within universities, and to inspire conversations, activities and literature from Black and other perspectives.

In 2012 and 2013, Kensmil participated in an artist exchange program of Nubuke Foundation Accra, Ghana and Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam. During her stay in Ghana, the artist visited a series of slave-castles. At that time, Kensmil created works based on other aspects of Ghana’s history, including paintings of W.E.B. Du Bois who spent his later years in Ghana (where he is buried) and depictions of Ghanaian chieftains. In 2020 Kensmil felt strong enough to paint her impressions of the slave-castles too. From her own photographs of these places, the artist produced Dungeon, the dungeon for enslaved men at Cape Coast Castle; Crawl Hole, from the dungeon the enslaved were forced to crawl through a low tunnel that ended at this hole near ‘the gate of no return’; Gate, the gate to the ships at Saint George Elmina; Elmina Dungeon; and Elmina Gate. These paintings point to what should be a collective memory around these spaces, inextricable from their architectures which still stand.

“Blues, soul and reggae are entertainment. However, as a Black person you can also hear back the experience of your world in these genres. My father used to play a lot of soul music at home, and such music has remained important to me.” 

Detroit was ablaze following a police raid on July 23rd 1967. Singer and guitarist John Lee Hooker lived within the unrest and described his experiences in the song “The Motor City is Burning.” Kensmil memorializes Hooker in her piece, titled in solidarity The Motor City is Burning. In the same spirit Kensmil produced a series of female singers, under the title of Nina Simone’s song “Four Woman” which includes the works: Four Woman: Nina Simone; Betty Davis; and Lauryn Hill. 

During Kensmil’s 2011 ISCP residency in New York, she visited the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center at the Audubon Ballroom, where Malcolm X was assassinated. The powerful impression of this visit prompted a visual memorial titled, February 21, 1965, depicting Betty Shabazz, Malcolm X’s wife and fellow activist, after identifying her husband’s body in the New York morgue. In the triptych, Shabazz’s portrait is between two side panels based on police photos of the Audubon Ballroom following the murder. 

After the murder of George Floyd, Kensmil began a series of paintings about the impact on families of racist murders in the western world. Commemoration, the first piece in this new series, is based on a found photo of Dominika Stanley and Charles Jones, whose seven year old daughter, Aiyana Jones was shot and murdered by police officer, Joseph Weekley while his unit was being filmed for the reality TV show “The First 48” on A&E. 

Post Blackness and Genelva in Black Dress are two works in a larger series of drawings and paintings of Black Dutch women from the artist’s life. Kensmil is preparing a future performance and installation with six young Black women from the Netherlands to talk about the heritage of Black intellectuals, and the importance of this for contemporary discussion. This new body of work also includes drawings and material from the artist’s archive. In the installation the women will be presented in portraits, for which the works on paper titled, Zaïre and Helené are studies. 

Iris Kensmil works from a Black European feminist narrative, but her critical attitude also extends to the way of presenting.  Working within this lens of critical thought, Kensmil offers a unique sensibility to the complexities tied within historical and contemporary life, as archived throughout art history.

 

Something Still Comes Back is Iris Kensmil’s first solo exhibition in Los Angeles. 

Born in 1970 in Amsterdam, Kensmil lived the first half of her youth in Paramaribo, Suriname. The artist lives and works in Amsterdam.

Kensmil represented the Netherlands at the Venice Biennale 2019 in the Dutch Pavilion. Other recent solo exhibitions include Art Institute Melly, Rotterdam, NL (2021-22); Women Make History. Feminism in the Age of Transnationalism at the Haifa Museum of Art, ISR (2019); Blues Before Sunrise at the Museum Kranenburgh, Bergen, NL (2019); Shifting Colours, with Willem de Rooij at Tropenmuseum Amsterdam (2014); No sidon na bakra sturu, with Charl Landvreugd; 6to8months at Kara Walker Studio, New York, NY (2010).

Her work has been shown in collection presentations at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (2017 / 2021) and Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (2018-2021); other group exhibitions include 1 Million Roses, Albertinum, Dresden, DE, (2021); Here. Black in Rembrandt’s Time, Museum Het Rembrandthuis, Amsterdam, NL (2020); Neither Black/Red/Yellow Nor Women, curated by Nikita Yingqian Cai, Times Art Center, Berlin (2019-20); Black and Revolutionary at The Black Archives, Veronsur, Amsterdam (2018); Evolution/Revolution/Revision, Bread House at the Tsaritsino Museum, Moscow (2017); How Far, How Near at Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2014); Time Trade Travel at SMBA, Amsterdam, Accra, Ghana (2012); Mutualism at Co-Prosperity, Chicago, IL (2011); Monumentalism at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (2010); Wakaman: Drawing Lines, Connecting Dots at Fort Zeelandia, Paramaribo, Suriname (2009); and Respect! Forms of community at Musée Dar-Si-Said and Palais el-Badi, Marrakech, Morocco (2005).

Kensmil acted as an organiser for the Becoming More caucus at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven and created an installation for the collection ‘Study in Black Modernity (2017)’.