A forthcoming exhibition in London at Sir John Soane’s Museum will celebrate the “surreal, subversive practice” of Madelon Vriesendorp.
Madelon Vriesendorp: Mind Games opens this summer. It will feature 50 artworks by or from the personal collection of Vriesendorp, the 2025 Soane Medal winner and OMA cofounder.
Vriesendorp is famous for her illustrations (Flagrant Délits, Captive Globe), but is also a renowned tinkerer. “I make things that make me laugh,” Vriesendorp said, in describing her process.
The exhibition subtitle takes its name from a psychoanalytical toolkit Vriesendorp designed, Critical Pursuit Home Analysis Kit, more commonly known as Mind Game.
A large-scale version of Mind Game will be on display at the exhibition. Other contraptions that Vrienendorp designed; her early jewelry, etchings, drawings, and book covers; and newer works on paper and sculpture will also be on view.
New sculptures from a recent series titled Plastic Surgery made of recycled plastic bottles and packaging will be on view. Vriesendorp contorted milk and cleaning bottles into likenesses of swans, elephants, and priests.
Eggs that Vriesendorp rehashed into depictions of dictators from the last century will also be featured.
The goal is to show how Vriesendorp transforms “everyday materials into unexpected sources of humour, beauty and inspiration,” per a curatorial statement.
“The exhibition promises to be an exciting showcase of why Vriesendorp was an obvious choice for the Soane Medal,” the curatorial statement affirms. “It will uncover how seeing through objects has influenced a unique practice, informed by looking at the world around us through a surrealist lens, which continues to inspire the architects, designers and artists of today and tomorrow.”
Mind Games will be open July 15–September 20.