Meet Aletta Jacobs, portrayed by Isaac Israëls, journey through the expressionism of the Groningen artists of De Ploeg and be surprised by striking rotating exhibitions. In the Treasury, the large collection of Groningen silver shines towards you, with a miniature of the Martinitoren as the eye-catcher. In the Masterpiece Hall, paintings from the 17th century are displayed. Naturally, Groningen history and culture are not absent either. The final halls are dedicated to (inter)national modern art, fashion and design.
Rotating exhibitions
Beauty and Resistance
Queerness is more than just a term – it’s a way of existing. It embraces differences and encourages experimentation with being ‘Other’. It challenges traditional ideas of gender, sexuality and identity, breaking free from categories and rules.
Historically, in the Western world, being ‘Other’ has often referred to being nonwhite, non-heterosexual, or non-Western. Unfortunately, discrimination against these people and communities is still ongoing.
This gallery gives a voice to artists who highlight and acknowledge queerness. The Groninger Museum invited The Pink Cube, a queer art history organization based in Groningen, to reflect on two of the artworks here.
The pieces in this gallery explore gender and sexuality in various ways. Some artists use makeup and clothing to play with masculinity and femininity. Others leave out recognizable features, such as faces, creating space for individual interpretations of identity.
Queerness allows for possibilities without restrictions. Even if you do not identify as queer or do not understand it fully, it is about the beauty of being human.
The Groninger Museum is proud to be part of the IHLIA Queer History Month 2025.
Hussein Chalayan
Fashion is about more than nice clothes. It's not just fabric made into a dress, a pair of trousers, a shirt, or a stylish catwalk collection. Fashion can also transmit ideas. An excellent example is the work of the designer Hussein Chalayan, on display in this room. Chalayan is known for using the catwalk as a platform for making political statements.
His Panoramic collection refers to the way language determines and impedes self-expression. The clothes reflect this in their anonymity and the way they restrict freedom of movement. Just as language places boundaries around identity through a lack of needed words, Chalayan's garments limit the body. His Manifest Destiny collection, meanwhile, critically comments on oppressive western beauty ideals in fashion. By cutting away pieces of material, the designer seeks to break the spell and liberate the body. And Chalayan's Before Minus Now collection considers the similarities and differences between technology and nature, with dress shapes based on erosion patterns in the mountains.
Chalayan shows us how fashion can be a means of commenting on important societal issues. Clothing is more than just a covering for the body -we can use it to express our identity and beliefs.
The Hussein Chalayan designs in this room are displayed alongside other works from the Groninger Museum's collection: vases by the ceramicist Mieke Blits and portraits by the photographer duo Anuschka Blommers & Niels Schumm. Themes of identity, anonymity and western beauty ideals recur in their multifaceted work.
If You Know Who She Is, It’s Time for Botox
Polly Pocket was a popular toy in the 1990s. Many a child played with the tiny woman who lived in a makeup compact. The highly gendered doll reflected deeply rooted ideas about beauty and youth. This installation was inspired by a meme served to Joana Schneider by an Instagram algorithm: a photo of Polly captioned “If you know who she is, it’s time for Botox.” Schneider decided to recreate the doll’s clothes in human proportions. Here, as in Otherworldly, she uses discarded fishing ropes as a basis. But rather than leaving them in their rough original state, she wraps them in shiny pink, purple and blue yarn before using them to make replicas of the clothing, furniture and wall decorations in Polly’s world. Built up layer by layer, they resemble objects that could have come out of a 3D printer. This cynically titled work sparks conversation about bodies, gender, perception, and the impact of plastic surgery on young adults – perhaps influenced by these toys. The Polly Pocket series also points to the aesthetic experience of living between the digital and offline worlds. The museum is displaying this work here for the first time since its acquisition in 2023. The purchase was made possible by a generous grant from the Mondriaan Fund.
Along with If You Know Who She Is, It’s Time for Botox, Joana Schneider’s installation Otherworldly is on view in Oval West .