Piet Dieleman, Kees Smits: 21 February – 21 March 2026

Slewe Gallery is pleased to announce a duo exhibition featuring work by Kees Smits and Piet Dieleman. Both artists work in the tradition of fundamental painting and made a name for themselves in the 1980s at Galerie Van Krimpen in Amsterdam.

Smits, originally from Zeeland, has lived and worked in Amsterdam since his student days. He creates large-scale installations with multiple geometric abstract panels that depict the flat Dutch landscape from different perspectives. Dieleman, also born in Zeeland, lives and works in Middelburg. His abstract geometric paintings focus on the six colors of the spectrum, as well as the corresponding scale in gray tones. He also creates graphic work on paper with prints of plants from nature.

In this exhibition, Smits, now eighty years old, presents his new polyptychs in which the motif of letters and punctuation marks plays a more prominent role, reflecting his love of experimental and typographic poetry. Dieleman will show a large diptych from his 'Spectrum' series and a group of new prints of plants from his 'Herbarium' series.

Kees Smits (born 1945, Kortgene) rose to prominence in 1975 with his participation in the Fundamental Painting exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. In 1990, he held a retrospective of fifteen years' work at the Centraal Museum, for which he was awarded the Sandberg Prize. His work is held by various museum collections, including the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Centraal Museum Utrecht, and Schunck Museum Heerlen. Smits has exhibited regularly at Slewe Gallery since the gallery's start in 1994.

Piet Dieleman (born 1956, Arnemuiden) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Rotterdam. He has exhibited at various venues including the Vleeshal in Middelburg and the Muhka Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp. His work is held in various public collections, including the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Kunstmuseum The Hague, the Van Bommel-van Dam Museum, the Groninger Museum, the Dordrechts Museum, MUKHA Antwerp, the Zeeuws Museum, as well as the Bouwfonds, ABN AMRO, and AMC.
Piet Dieleman is exhibiting for the first time at Slewe Gallery.

Rapports: 13 January – 10 February 2024

Slewe Gallery will start the new year with a group show, entitled Rapports, with selected works by Alan Charlton, Alice Schorbach, Jan van Munster, Kees Smits, Lesley Foxcroft, Lon Pennock and Paul Wallach.

The exhibition will be on view from January 13 to February 10. The festive opening will take place during Amsterdam Gallery Weekend on Friday January 19 and Saturday January 20.

Kees Smits: 18 January – 15 February 2020

Slewe Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of the exhibition with new works by the 75-years old Dutch painter Kees Smits (*1945). Some of his new multi paneled works are compositions of new and early works from the late seventies. The exhibition shows an astonishing consistent and varied artistic development of almost 45 years. The show will open Saturday January 18 and will last until February 15, 2020. You can listen to an interview with the artist by Robert van Altena on line if you click here.

The flat Dutch landscape forms the basis for his abstract geometric paintings, in which different points of view are brought together in one image. Kees Smits builds his paintings according to his own strict formal rules, but the imagination, 'the elevation of material', as he himself says, remains essential. In his work one always recognizes recurring motifs, such as arrows, numbers, waves, spirals, eight forms, circles and open cubes, which refer to the process of making and viewing, but one also recognizes the simplified references of figure and landscape.

Kees Smits became known in 1975 for his participation in the exhibition Fundamental painting in the Stedelijk Museum. In 1990 he had an overview exhibition of fifteen years of work in the Central Museum, for which he was awarded the Sandberg prize. He has exhibited at Slewe gallery on a regular basis since the start of the gallery in 1994. Before that, he exhibited at the former Galerie Van Krimpen.

Kees Smits: 12 September – 10 October 2015

Slewe Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of the exhibition with new works by Dutch artist Kees Smits (*1945). The exhibition opens Saturday September 12 and will last until October 10.

Smits’s abstract geometric paintings deal with how one experience different perspective in the flat Dutch landscape. He tries to catch the panoramic view of the Dutch landscape in different perspectives. Both in his long horizontal works, which can consist of different sizes of canvases, and in his narrow vertical works he focuses on a literal perspective experience in viewing the space. Smits’ preoccupation with perspective on a flat plane goes back to the experiments of Russian constructivists such as El Lissitsky. His love for Malevich the way his paintings have been organized. Also in the use of bright and contrastful colours there is a connection with the pioneer of abstract art.

Kees Smits lives and works in Amsterdam. He became known as an artist at the time he participated at the Fundamental Painting show in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in 1979. Since then his paintings have been shown regularly. In 1994 he had an overview of his works in the Centraalmuseum Utrecht, on which occasion also a catalogue had been published. Smits has been showing at Slewe Gallery on a regular base since 1995.

Kees Smits: 18 February – 24 March 2012

Slewe Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of the exhibition with new works by the Dutch artist Kees Smits (*1945). The exhibition will open Saturday February 18 and will last until March 24.

Smits’s abstract geometric paintings deal with how one experience different perspective in the flat Dutch landscape. He tries to catch the panoramic view of the Dutch landscape in different perspectives. Both in his long horizontal works, which can consist of different sizes of canvases, and in his narrow vertical works he focuses on a literal perspective experience in viewing the space. Smits’ preoccupation with perspective on a flat plane goes back to the experiments of Russian constructivists such as El Lissitsky. His love for Malevich the way his paintings have been organized. Also in the use of bright and contrastful colors there ia a connection with the pioneer of abstract art.

During the exhibition an interview with the artist will be made and shown as a video through vimeo on internet. This will be the fourth in the series of artists’ interviews, which art critic Robert-Jan Muller will make for the gallery.

Kees Smits lives and works in Amsterdam. He became known as an artist at the time he participated at the Fundamental Painting show in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in 1979. Since then his paintings have been shown regularly. In 1994 he had an overview of his works in the Centraalmuseum Utrecht, on which occasion also a catalog had been published. Smits has been showing at Slewe Gallery on a regular base since 1995. 

Kees Smits: 16 February – 22 March 2008

Slewe Gallery is pleased to announce the exhibition with new paintings by Dutch artist Kees Smits. The opening will be February 16 and will run until March 22, 2008.

Smits’ abstract geometric paintings deal with how one experience different perspective in the flat Dutch landscape. He tries to catch the panoramic view of the Dutch landscape in different schemes. He focuses on a literal perspective experience in viewing the space. Smits’ preoccupation with perspective on a flat plane goes back to the experiments of Russian constructivists such as El Lissitsky. His love for Malevich the way his paintings have been organized. Also in the use of bright and contrastful colors there ia a connection with the pioneer of abstract art.

Kees Smits, born in 1945 in Kortgene (NL), lives and works in Amsterdam. He became known as an artist at the time he participated at the Fundamental Painting show in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in 1979. Since then his paintings have been shown regularly. In 1994 he had an overview of his works in the Centraalmuseum Utrecht, on which occasion also a catalog had been published. Smits has been showing at Slewe Gallery on a regular base since 1995.

Kees Smits, The Offing: 3 September – 2 October 2005

Kees Smits: 11 January – 15 February 2003

Kees Smits: 31 March – 5 April 2001

Kees Smits, Günter Tuzina: Works on Paper: 13 May – 17 June 2000

Watercolour: 22 November – 20 December 1997

From November 22 until December 20, 1997, Slewe Gallery will host an exhibition on watercolours. Artists including are David Austen, Frank Van den Broeck, Paul Drissen, Joris Geurts, Callum Innes, Gabriëlle van de Laak, Kees Smits and Jerry Zeniuk.

Kees Smits: 22 February – 29 March 1997

Kees Smits: 19 November – 31 December 1994

From November 19 until December 31, 1994 Slewe Gallery will present her second exhibition with new paintings by Dutch artist Kees Smits (*1945), on which occasion a small catalog is published, designed by Irma Boom.