Basel | ArtRegion: Basel - Oberrhein

see you next tuesday

Mariejon de Jong-Buijs: In the Dutch mountains

25. April – 6. Juni 2025

Art Basel Week 2025 Opening Hours (16 – 22 June) Tue-Sun 11-19 | ★Tue 17-20 ★Fri 18:30

Mariejon de Jong-Buijs’ work is a reflection on the land—shaped by her personal experiences working on farms and her lifelong connection to Dutch landscape painting. The title In the Dutch mountains is inspired by the 1987 song by the Dutch band Nits, which evokes an imagined, idealized childhood and a landscape where memory and fantasy intertwine. In the song, the Dutch mountains are not literal but rather a metaphor for a landscape born of memory, fantasy and longing. This exhibition draws on that same spirit of imagination, reinterpreting the landscapes of de Jong-Buijs’ youth while exploring the agricultural landscapes of today.

De Jong-Buijs’ paintings bridge the personal and the universal, reflecting on the evolving relationship between humanity and the land. Drawing from the tradition of Dutch Golden Age landscape painting, the artist looks at today’s agricultural environments—plowed fields, irrigation grids, planting patterns—and reimagines them as abstract geometric forms. Through vibrant colors and dynamic shapes, she transforms agricultural patterns into contemporary paintings that evoke both the changing rhythms of farming and the deeper connection to nature that is often overlooked in today’s industrialized world.

De Jong-Buijs’ process is as much about the act of painting as it is about the tools and materials she uses to create it. From tractors, brooms, and back sprayers to her own body, she uses a wide range of tools both inside and outside her studio. These marks and gestures—repetitive, deliberate, and in tune with the land—are an essential part of the paintings themselves. By engaging directly with the materials, she exposes the labor, time, and movement that go into each painting. The result is not only a visual record of these actions but also a commentary on the value of the land and the way it is treated by humanity.

The exhibition highlights the significance of contemporary agriculture and our shared responsibility in caring for the land. As farming becomes increasingly mechanized and distanced from nature, de Jong-Buijs’ paintings serve as a reminder of the delicate balance between human progress and environmental sustainability. Through vibrant, colorful abstractions, she invites viewers to reflect on the land’s role in shaping our identity and the need to preserve it.

Like the song In the Dutch mountains, which evokes a place beyond the visible horizon, de Jong-Buijs’ work offers a fresh perspective on agriculture—not as something static, but as a dynamic, evolving force. The exhibition encourages viewers to reconsider their relationship with the landscape and the urgent need to protect it for future generations.

Mariejon de Jong-Buijs is living and working in Basel, Switzerland. In 1994 she graduated with a BA in art in The Netherlands and completed her MFA at the FHNW/HGK (Institute Art Gender Nature) Basel in 2015. In 2019 de Jong-Buijs participated in the Immigrant Artist Program at the New York Foundation for the Arts. Her work has been shown widely nationally and internationally, including at the Kunsthalle Basel, FABRIKculture Hégenheim, Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton NJ, The Clemente, New York City, Brick + Mortar Gallery, Easton PA USA, FRAC Alsace, Sélestat France, space25 Basel, Switzerland, Villa Renata Basel, Switzerland, Kunstmuseum Olten, Switzerland, Kunshaus Baselland, Muttenz Switzerland, Ballroom Gallery, Brussels Belgium, see you next tuesday gallery, Basel Switzerland, Lille Grand Palais, Lille France, Eleven20, Easton PA USA and iCOON, Museum for Minimal Art & Design, Hoek van Holland, the Netherlands.

Tuesday, May 27, 18–20h
Studio visit at Haus Oslo Ateliers & Salon Mondial with Apéro:

Friday, June 6, 17–19h
Finissage