Artist · Holland Tunnel 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2025, 2026
Paulien Lethen
Also known as Paulien Lethen-Schuttevaer
Painter · Gallery founder-director · Curator · b. 1942
Paulien Lethen is a Dutch-born painter and the founder-director of Holland Tunnel Gallery, which she started in 1997 in a backyard garden shed in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and later extended to Paros, Greece, and Newburgh, New York.
Verified · 13 sources
Biography
Paulien Lethen was born in Utrecht in 1942 and trained in Monumental Art at the Academy of Arts in Arnhem. She left the Netherlands in the 1960s and spent 1968 to 1982 living on the Greek island of Paros, with several extended stays in Kyoto, Japan, during the 1970s. She moved to Manhattan in 1982 and settled in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in 1987.
To support herself in New York she worked as a housepainter, and the scrapers, skimming knives and broad brushes of that trade became her main painting tools. In November 1997 she used the 8 by 10 foot garden shed behind her Williamsburg house for an open studios weekend; it became Holland Tunnel Gallery, which The New York Times later called one of the quirkiest spaces in Williamsburg. She ran a monthly exhibition program there for ten years, opened a summer venue on Paros with her sister, the jazz pianist and vocalist Heleen Schuttevaêr, in 2000, and staged large group projects called Stairmasters in the staircase of her house.
After buying an 1860s building at 46 Chambers Street in Newburgh, she opened Holland Tunnel Newburgh in May 2018 as a gallery, concert space, cinema club and studio building. In 2023 the gallery showed her retrospective Finale and Beyond, and the Newburgh space now presents its program as Holland Tunnel Revisited. Her life and gallery are the subject of Yara Hannema's short documentary Requiem for Williamsburg (2019).
Practice. Bold, gestural abstractions in high-gloss industrial paint applied with skimming knives and big brushes on mulberry paper; earlier work includes assemblages from found wood and furniture and paintings on salvaged car hoods. The gallery cites Japanese ink painting and Greek island dance as lasting influences.
Holland Tunnel record
Every show and performance at Holland Tunnel, with the artists who were part of it.
- 2026
- 2025
- 2023
Retrospective
Finale and Beyond
- 2022
- 2019
- 2019
- 2018
- 2018
- 2018
Connections
Who Paulien has shown or played with at Holland Tunnel, plus collaborators in the directory.Shown togetherWider circle
Wider circle
- Heleen SchuttevaêrSister; jazz pianist/vocalist; co-founder of Holland Tunnel Paros (2000) and co-author of the gallery history book
- Bix LyeSculptor shown frequently at Holland Tunnel Gallery
- Yara HannemaDirector of the documentary Requiem for Williamsburg about Lethen
- Kent PetersonNewburgh artist in her program; Cinema Club film programmer
- Thornton WillisExhibited at Holland Tunnel (Delft Blues project; Matter of Fact, 2022)
- Jan MulderArtist shown with her in Framed (2014) and the 25 Years show
- Jacques RochLongtime Holland Tunnel contributor; she presents work from his estate
- Alexandra LimpertExhibited with her in Figures (2019); co-curated Reclamation (2025)
Career timeline
- 1968Settles on Paros, Greece, where she lives until 1982
- 1970sSeveral extended periods in Kyoto, Japan
- 1982Moves to Manhattan, New York
- 1987Settles in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
- 1997Opens Holland Tunnel Gallery in a garden shed in Williamsburg during an open studios weekend
- 2000Opens Holland Tunnel Paros with sister Heleen Schuttevaêr in an 18th-century house in Parikia
- 2004Begins Stairmasters, large group projects in the staircase of her Williamsburg house (to 2020)
- 2014Publishes a book on the history of Holland Tunnel Gallery with Heleen Schuttevaêr; Framed, a 110-artist project marking 17 years in Williamsburg
- 2015Buys the c.1860 building at 46 Chambers Street, Newburgh
- 2018Opens Holland Tunnel Newburgh (Grand Opening, May 25–26)
- 2019Closes the Williamsburg location
- 2022Holland Tunnel Gallery Celebrates 25 Years exhibition in Newburgh
- 2023Retrospective Finale and Beyond at Holland Tunnel Newburgh
- 2025Holland Tunnel Revisited opens its current program at Chambers Street with Reclamation: Lost and Found in Newburgh
Selected exhibitions
| 2018 | Grand Opening HTG Newburgh (group) | Holland Tunnel Gallery, Newburgh, NY |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Figures (with Angiola Churchill, Alexandra Limpert, Nikos Voulgaris) | Holland Tunnel Gallery, Newburgh, NY |
| 2019 | Newburgh Open Studios | Holland Tunnel Gallery / citywide tour, Newburgh, NY |
| 2022 | Holland Tunnel Gallery Celebrates 25 Years (group) | Holland Tunnel Gallery, Newburgh, NY |
| 2023 | Finale and Beyond (retrospective) | Holland Tunnel Gallery, Newburgh, NY |
Publications
- 2014Holland Tunnel Gallery (book, with Heleen Schuttevaêr) · Holland Tunnel Gallery
- 2019Requiem for Williamsburg (documentary subject; dir. Yara Hannema, 30 min.)
Press
- 1998A Mini-Holland Tunnel for New Amsterdam's Art Crowd (Genia Gould) The New York Times
- 1998Brooklyn Haven For Art Heats Up (Roberta Smith) The New York Times
- 2018New Art Venue, The Holland Tunnel Art Gallery Comes to Newburgh Newburgh Restoration
- Holland Tunnel Newburgh: The Artist and Her Gallery NewburghNY.org
- 2022The Holland Tunnel Reaches Newburgh (Alison Rooney) The Highlands Current
- 2025Reclamation: Holland Tunnel Revisited in Newburgh Art Spiel