Growth
A solo exhibition by Margriet van Breevoort

Opening
Saturday December 13, 2025
3 – 5 pm

Address
NL=US Gallery
Mauritsweg 55B, 3012 JX, Rotterdam

This exhibition runs until January 18, 2026

Exhibition statement

The exhibition *Growth* explores growth in all its forms: beautiful, dangerous, necessary, and
sometimes destructive. Humanity spreads across the Earth like a force that can no longer be
stopped, much like a fungus or an uncontrollable tumor. Like fungi, we are connected through
countless visible and invisible networks, stretching across and beneath the ground like living
veins. Along the way, we exhaust other species and often leave empty, depleted landscapes
behind. This is the age in which human influence is felt everywhere: the Anthropocene.

The world around us is shaped by our choices, our desires, and our mistakes, and with each
decision the natural balance grows more fragile. We still cling to the idea of oppositions: human
versus nature, technology versus life, etc. But these divisions are illusions. Everything is
intertwined, like the threads of a mycelium network or the delicate balance of a coral reef.

Mushrooms are often seen as symbols of decay, but they also stand for cooperation, healing, and new beginnings. Their underground networks help plants and trees communicate and share
nutrients. Perhaps we can learn from their way of living: growing without overwhelming,
connecting without suffocating.

In the work *Growth*, these fleshy, anemone-like fungi appear to gently breathe. They rise from a
barren, dystopian landscape, a place that shows the limits of our desire for endless expansion.
The forms slowly draw the last bits of life from the ground. But they also raise a question: are they parasites that speed up the end, or are they the first seeds of new life that might grow again from the ruins?

The exhibition invites you to reflect on growth itself. When does growth nourish life, and when
does it destroy it? And more importantly: what kind of growth do we want to leave behind for the future?