Looking Back: Root Gallery at KunstRAI 2025
One fair, two booths and a week full of energy
This year at KunstRAI, we presented two booths side by side: a focused solo with Lisette Schumacher, and a group presentation featuring new work by Donald Schenkel, Noah Arends, Vera Klaus, Karen van de Vliet and Jan Theun van Rees.
Lisette Schumacher’s solo booth brought together multiple series that each reflect her ongoing fascination with light, architecture and perception. From early supporters to first-time viewers, many took the time to look closely. Several works have since found new homes, and beautiful commissions have been requested. For those who’ve followed our journey together since 2015, it was simply a joy to see these recent bodies of work side by side, a clear reflection of how her practice continues to deepen and expand.
A particular highlight was Jan Theun van Rees’ Painted Room series, presented on a deep grey wall that quietly amplified the intensity of the images. With striking shades of red, purple, and orange, the works drew many visitors in and held their attention.
Throughout the week, we had meaningful conversations about the series, both with collectors and with curious first-time visitors. Jan Theun was present for much of the fair and took the time to speak with people directly, about his process, about building spaces that only exist to be photographed, and about what it means to construct atmosphere rather than capture it.
By the end of the week, eight works had found a new home. A quiet success, and a testament to the strength of the work.
(View the series here)
Photography by Jacqueline Fuijkschot
What else was on view in the group booth? A vivid mix of textures, colours and approaches that played off one another in unexpected ways. Karen van de Vliet brought in softness and wit with her Bubblegum series, sculptural works in light pinks that felt nostalgic and contemporary at once. The entire new series sold out during the fair. Across from her, Noah Arends presented Layers of Pink, a series of large textile works where photographic fragments are reassembled into subtle, layered compositions. Abstract and refined, with a quiet presence. Their calm energy balanced well with the expressive canvases of Donald Schenkel, who never paints with a brush but uses tools he makes himself to push and pull colour across the surface. His new works brought boldness, texture and a sense of movement. Vera Klaus showed new pieces too. Including, for the first time, square-format works that added a different kind of tension to her precise, distilled language.
Together, the booth offered more than just contrast in materials and scale. It was a space full of colour, openness and rhythm, work that brings lightness in a time that can feel heavy.
Photography by Jacqueline Fuijkschot
Thank you to everyone who visited our booths, took the time to look, and shared their thoughts with us. These conversations - thoughtful, unexpected, sometimes wonderfully specific - are what make fairs like this meaningful.
If you’d like to revisit any of the works you saw at KunstRAI, or if you missed us in Amsterdam: you’re very welcome at the gallery. Several works are still available and can also be viewed online.
Schedule your viewing at the gallery.
