This is the first U.S. museum exhibition of Tenant of Culture, a moniker for the artistic practice of Hendrickje Schimmel (b. 1990, Arnhem, Netherlands; lives and works in Amsterdam). Originally trained in fashion design and textiles, Schimmel brings this experience to bear in her material explorations of the fashion industry, particularly the volume and speed at which it produces, consumes, and discards. Using items often sourced secondhand, Schimmel deconstructs and reassembles garments—often combining elements from multiple pieces and transforming them into new sculptural works that transcend their original form.

HOST: Tenant of Culture presents newly commissioned works by the artist alongside a selection of recent works in an installation that explores the tension between seductive, consumer-facing displays and spaces less visible in the fashion industry, such as production factories and fulfillment centers. Tenant of Culture’s assemblages reflect the patchwork nature of globalized production, where materials and labor from disparate locations create garments that are discarded as quickly as they are produced. For the artist, these materials are not an end but a starting point. Remixing secondhand garments into new forms, Tenant of Culture proposes a cyclical process where materials can be continually restructured, serving as a means of critique and reimagination in our world of overproduction.

HOST: Tenant of Culture is curated by Julie Le, Assistant Curator, The Contemporary Austin.

About the Artist

Tenant of Culture is the artistic practice of Hendrickje Schimmel (b. 1990, Arnhem, Netherlands), who lives and works in Amsterdam. She received her MA in Mixed Media from the Royal College of Art, London in 2016, and completed a BA in Womenswear at ArtEZ Hogeschool voor de Kunsten, Zwolle, Netherlands in 2012. By disassembling and rebuilding manufactured garments, Tenant of Culture examines the ways in which ideological frameworks and power structures materialize in methods of production, circulation, and marketing of apparel. The materials used in her textile assemblages are sourced from various stages of the garment production cycle, as well as secondary-use platforms and refuse. She recognizes commodities not only as the result of a standardized production process, but also as the social relations that arise in the process of their usage and wastage. Working across mediums such as garment, sculpture, workshop, and installation, her work suggests implicit potential for both destruction as well as transformation.

Previous solo exhibitions include the Galerie Fons Welters, Amsterdam (2024); Condo Mexico City, PEANA, Mexico City (2024); Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp (2023); Soft Opening, London (2023); Camden Art Centre, London (2022); Kunstverein Dresden (2021); Het Fries Museum, Leeuwarden 92020). She was also included in the 2023 British Textile Biennial. The work of Tenant of Culture is in the collections of Het Fries Museum, Leeuwarden; the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Zabludowicz Collection, London; and The Pier Arts Center, Orkney. Tenant of Culture was the 2020-21 recipient of the Camden Art Centre Emerging Artist Prize at Frieze. In 2020, the artist’s first monograph, co-published by Soft Opening and Charles Asprey, was awarded the Swiss Most Beautiful Book Award.

Portrait of Tenant of Culture (Hendrickje Schimmel). Image courtesy the artist.

Acknowledgements

HOST: Tenant of Culture is made possible with financial support from the Mondriaan Fund, the public cultural funding organization focusing on visual art and cultural heritage. Additional support provided by the Dutch Culture USA program by the Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York, and the Netherland-America Foundation.

The Contemporary Austin’s Exhibition Program is supported in part by Malú Alvarez, Rachel and Jeff Arnold, Bettina and Brian Barrow, Adrienne and Christopher Bosh, Suzanne Deal Booth, Debbie Dupré and Richard Rothberg, Kathleen and Christopher Loughlin, Chris Mattsson, Danielle Nieciag and Brian Sharples, O’Shaughnessy – Rivers Family Fund, Zarmeena Vendal and anonymous donors. Exhibitions and programming are also made possible by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Still Water Foundation, Every Page Foundation, and Stratus Properties.

The Contemporary Austin is supported by the generosity of its Board of Trustees, members and donors, and the citizens of Austin through the City of Austin Economic Development Department, Cultural Arts Division.

Press Release

The Contemporary Austin Presents HOST: Tenant of Culture

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HOST: Tenant of Culture booklet (English) HOST: Tenant of Culture follleto (español)