Marja Samsom is an international artist and filmmaker, whose work confronts and exposes with elegant wit. Poised within the 1970’s international avant-garde, her early works are experiments in self representation. Her embodiment and simultaneous commodification of the character ‘Miss Bhave’ 'Miss Kerr' pose an elegant, tongue-in-cheek dissection of glamour. Samsom’s current photography explores relationships between objects that illuminate playfulness. Her practice is daily exploration: making something out of nothing.
Marja Samsom was born in the Netherlands, raised in Europe, and exhibits internationally. Samsom's New York debut was at the Fine Arts Building (1975) in a group show curated by Julian Pretto. She went on to perform at a variety of seminal avant-garde galleries, including the Hal Bromm Gallery (1977) and the SF Gallery in Santa Fe, NM, curated by Edmund Gaultney. After performing at the 1976 Venice Biennale, her work was featured in FlashArt Magazine. In tandem with her performance work, a series of self-portraits and S8 films were shown at the Byrd Hoffman Foundation (1975) and her photography was exhibited at the Bertha Urdang Gallery (1977). In Europe, she showed her work and films at the Riekje Swart Gallery and was part of the inauguration of de Appel Center (1976). Centraal Museum Utrecht nominated Samsom in 1978 to design their annual catalogue. Returning to New York in 1980 at the invitation of De Appel's artist's exchange, Samsom performed at Franklin Furnace and designed the poster for this program.
Deciding to stay in New York, Samsom created a word-of-mouth salon, the ‘Kitchen Club’, in the East Village. It developed into the legendary downtown eatery of same name on Prince & Mott Street from 1990-2010. Curating both menu and restaurant space, Samsom actualized her underground Kitchen Club as a gesamtkunstwerk. She hosted a radio series "Cooking up a Storm" on Art International Radio and completed a residency at the Clocktower Gallery with a storytelling performance ‘Shrine’ dedicated to her sister. Recently, she has completed a number of performances at Participant Inc. and currently her work is included at H’ART Museum, Amsterdam. She lives and works in Downtown New York City.
Glamour is Resistance.
View selected films through The Film-Makers' Coop and LIMA Amsterdam.
Wikipedia: Marja Samsom
Identities including Miss Behave, Miss Kerr, Madame Hulot en vacances, Flavor DJ & Founder of The Kitchen Club, traveling through time and space til this day.
In 2024, Samsom received the Acker Award in recognition of her contributions to the New York avant-garde art scene.
NEW book : Miss Taken Identities 2021 available at Printed Matter Inc.
Diary of a Forgotten Actress 2015 curated by Inez&Vinoodh
Miss Taken Identities live stream performance on Participant After Dark in July 2021.
Miss Behave exhibition and performances held at Participant Inc in 2016.
From Amsterdam to New Amsterdam, 2019