The Merchant House

The Merchant House (TMH) presents contemporary art with sales of art as a funding strategy. Marsha Plotnitsky, TMH’s Founding Artistic Director, curates a project-based program involving extensive research and work with the artists. Each project brings together a thematic exhibition, cultural events, and a dedicated catalogue/artist’s book.

At TMH we feel there is a need for a mixed venue dedicated to contemporary art, business, and culture. Our aim is to contribute to artists’ careers, participate in international art discourse, and stimulate a vibrant dialogue in the city by inviting people for exhibitions, talks, concerts, and social evenings. Since it opened its doors in a historical canal house in Amsterdam in 2013, TMH has become known as a modern take on the Dutch tradition of a merchant—freely open to the public.

Herengracht 254: Canal houses of the 1600s and squatter houses of the 1960s are an integral part of Amsterdam. These houses, and life within them, formed the avant-garde of their time and proposed a way of life to emulate.

Spreading to the outdoors Amsterdam-style, TMH’s artworks can be exposed through the high windows to the eyes of the passersby, part of the city’s shop displays and the play of light on the canal—“YouTube” in real. TMH’s stijlkamer boasts an 18th-century ceiling painting by a Dutch master. The beautiful Flora of his hand is there as if to preside (her “embarrassment of riches” notwithstanding) as we endeavor to develop new ideas and programs.

All images on this web page are © to their respective owners.