Puppet Masters is an exhibition by curator Merel van den Nieuwenhof in Museum Jan Cunen in Oss (North Brabant), which opens on September 14, 2025 until February 8, 2026.

Who is pulling the strings? Puppets fascinate, move and frighten. They can be playful or
sinister, a source of comfort or an object of desire. We project our deepest emotions
onto them, while at the same time they hold up a mirror to us. In Puppet masters the
boundaries between puppeteer and puppet, between control and surrender, between art and reality are blurred. Are we the players, or are we being played?
With work by Gijs Assmann, Tobias Bradford, Hans Bellmer, Julius von Bismarck, Claude Cahun, Caren van Herwaarden, Job Koelewijn, Paul Kooiker, Sarah Lucas, Nathaniel Mellors, Tamara Muller, Judith Nab, Remy Neumann and Tony Oursler (subject to change).

Van Herwaarden won the audience award of the 2024 Paper Biennial in Museum Rijswijk, the award is a solo presentation: Backbone in 2025 - 2026. Backbone will be an exhibition with recent works, combined with highlights from recent years. With people and horses: in her drawings, collages and watercolors she approaches horses in the same way as people. '... After all, we have a lot in common: we are animals, we like to eat and laze around, we need company and are afraid of pain. We are vulnerable but also strong and resilient with a passionate desire to survive. This makes tragic players of both of us. But humans are more tragic, because horses are not aware of their mortality, they do not adhere to religion and do not whine or complain...' Opening November 30 in Museum Rijswijk, the exhibition lasts until March 1, 2026