In 2014, Foam presented to the public work from its own collection for the first time, in the exhibition Reflected - Works from the Foam Collection. Since then, the collection has grown from over 400 to around 550 works of art. The collection – which is focused solely on contemporary photography – is still constantly developing. Loading… Works from the Foam Collection shows a selection of the most recent additions from the last five years. It features work from 30 international photographers in a diverse exhibition that reflects Foam’s exhibition programme. From the monumental work by the French artist Noémie Goudal to experiments with negatives by the Japanese Daisuke Yokota, and from the sophisticated work of Sjoerd Knibbeler to the still lifes of the young American Daniel Gordon and the strong, colourful images by Viviane Sassen.

Foam has been working for over ten years on its growing collection that shows the development of the medium throughout the 21st century. By spotting and presenting young talented photographers at an early stage of their careers and simultaneously adding their work to the collection, the museum ensures that its collection keeps pace with the potential and development of the young artists. In this way Foam tries to recognise and record the most recent developments of the medium as contemporaneously as possible.

With works by: Paul Bogaers, Sofia Borges, Antony Cairns, Juno Calypso, Uta Eisenreich, Daniel Gordon, Noémie Goudal, Adam Jeppesen, Heikki Kaski, Sjoerd Knibbeler, Awoiska van der Molen, Anouk Kruithof, Ola Lanko, Matthew Leifheit & Cynthia Talmadge, Romain Mader, Nerhol, Momo Okabe, Olya Oleinic, Peter Puklus, Jan Rosseel, Viviane Sassen, Scheltens & Abbenes, Jean-Vincent Simonet, Theo Simpson, Anne de Vries, Harley Weir and Daisuke Yokota.

Foam’s own collection is an active and vibrant part of the museum and a true reflection of its exhibition programme. The exhibition history of Foam has been meticulously documented in installation images that show the original context in which the work was once shown to the public. The works which were then added to the collection are artefacts that hark back to exhibitions in which the artistic practice of the artist was presented to the public. Loading…looks back on these exhibitions by also including installation images in this collection presentation that remind us of the relationship that Foam has built up with the artists and their work. Loading… brings the collected works from all these exhibitions together to create an alternative context in which new insights and interrelations come about. The result is a striking contemporary exhibition with themes such as materiality, identity and conceptual approaches to landscape and environment. The artistic perspectives are extremely divergent, yet the artists share the concept that the medium of photography is seldom used to create a snapshot but rather a visual construction of reality. Loading… emphasises the most recent developments in the collection, in which the playful exploration of the medium and its boundaries is an important motivation of the makers.