In False Flat, everything revolves around painting. There is a special focus on four exceptional artists, who are participating in small solo presentations: Hadassah Emmerich, Fons Haagmans, Rik Meijers and Marleen Rothaus, each of whom approach painting from their own perspective and show how wide the spectrum of the medium is.

Alongside the four solopresentation, False Flat shows work by the following artists: Bob Eikelboom, Vera Gulikers, Mary Heilmann, Laura Lima, Edward Lipski, Mark Manders, Katja Mater, Navid Nuur, Lara Schnitger, Chaim van Luit, Julius von Bismarck, Duan Jianyu, David Lynch, Helen Verhoeven, Laura Owens, Raquel van Haver, René Daniëls, Lee Kit and Lily van de Stokker .

The paintings of Rik Meijers (Rotterdam, 1963) have a magnetic effect. One minute they’re sucking you in and the next they’re spitting you out. This constant process of attraction and repulsion builds up an almost electric tension that hums through the space and around the visitor. Meijers gained international recognition for his sculptural paintings, in which he incorporates unconventional materials.

Hadassah Emmerich (Heerlen, 1974) is regarded as one of today’s most important Dutch painters. She makes exuberant, sensual paintings that stimulate the senses. Her creative process has a cyclic character, in which shapes and patterns keep recurring in a different composition or context, so that her works are in continual dialogue with one another. Emmerich thus spins an ever bigger and denser web of themes and associations. Her long, laborious creative process demands great physical and mental effort and concentration, which lends extra overtones and meanings to each detail.

Marleen Rothaus (Bielefeld, 1991) is an artist, feminist and social worker. Rothaus has gained international recognition with her oil paintings, which she carries around as banners at feminist marches, protests and interventions in the streets and public buildings. Rothaus’ work is characterized by a flamboyant visual language that is inhabited by colourful, cartoonesque figures. Behind the relatable and attractive scenes lies a broad scope of philosophical, historical and activist meaning.

Fons Haagmans (Schinnen, 1948) is one of the protagonists of painting from Limburg and the Netherlands. He has had a great influence on the Dutch art scene and on younger generations of artists. Over his long career, he has proved that painting lends itself equally well to abstract work and to figurative representation. In the 1980’s, Haagmans gained international fame for his monochrome paintings that depict rhythmic series of motifs and numbers. Later in his career, he focused increasingly on representing the world around him and reflecting on it.