Pride Art Expo: PEEKABOO
The Bookshop at ITA transforms into a vibrant meeting place with the special exhibition Pride Art Expo: PEEKABOO. Let yourself be guided through a carefully curated selection of artworks that bring to life the diversity, strength, and beauty of the LGBTQIA+-community. Curated by multidisciplinary artist Zjef van Bezouw, the expo offers a unique preview of the many art exhibitions taking place across the city during Pride.
On July 26, we’ll kick things off with a festive start from 6:00 to 8:00 PM. A week later, on August 3, we’ll wrap things up with a bang during the book launch of Bamber Delver-Salmanpour, also from 6:00 to 8:00 PM. Join Bamber on a journey through the vibrant story of the city’s free spirits.
Pride Amsterdam
Location The Bookshop
Genre Exhibition
Opening Hours
12:00 PM to 6:00 PM
Official opening on 26 July
18.00 tot 20.00
In a time when division increasingly dominates, love is the force that connects, strengthens, and propels us forward. During Pride Amsterdam 2025, LOVE takes center stage—not just as a romantic ideal, but as a symbol of solidarity, understanding, and the collective fight for equal rights. This spirit forms the foundation of Pride Art Expo: PEEKABOO, on view in The Bookshop at ITA.
This special exhibition is a colorful ode to the many forms of love. From attraction and mutual support to defying inequality—LOVE lives in every artwork.
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Multidisciplinary artist Zjef van Bezouw has curated a powerful selection that brings to life the beauty, resilience, and diversity of the LGBTQIA+ community. The exhibition offers a glimpse into the rich array of queer art being showcased across the city during Pride 2025.
In the lead-up to Pride Amsterdam, we’ll be sharing more about the featured artists and works. See you there!
Pride Art Route
During Pride Amsterdam, art exhibitions take place all across the city. Celebrate and enjoy the diversity, strength, and beauty of the LGBTQIA+ community with the Pride Art Route. Check out the official site and map out your own route!
Multidisciplinary artist and curator
Zjef van Bezouw
Zjef van Bezouw is a Dutch mixed media artist, designer, and curator whose work includes performance, immersive spaces, fetish-wear, and footwear. He studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and DASARTS in Theatre Design. From 2011 to 2019, he lived in NYC and now splits his time between Amsterdam and Portugal. Under his alias ZJEFWORKS, he creates multi-sensory experiences through space transformation, leather design, and curatorial happenings that “burn onto your retina.” A pioneer in Pride Amsterdam since the 1990s, he continues to exhibit internationally. In 2019, he launched BoaBoa, an arts initiative from Portugal.
About MAMABIRD
MAMABIRD, the alter ego of Dyan van Staveren, combines her experience in beauty with her passion for toys. She creates photo-realistic paintings of Barbie and other toys — a recurring source of inspiration in her work.
About Gemma Leys
Gemma traveled extensively through countries such as Nepal and South Africa, but Spain touched her deeply and forms the core of her work. Her abstract style blends emotion, symbolism, and the poetry of Pablo Neruda, beautifully rendered in calligraphy.
About Jesse Asselman
Jesse Asselman creates paintings and performances that immerse the viewer in an imaginary world. In his work, such as The Princess, the relationship with the audience is central. He has exhibited at venues including the Stedelijk Museum and Mediamatic.
About Prins de Vos
Prins de Vos photographs trans and non-binary individuals on the waiting list for gender care in On Hold. The series depicts the long wait and gives a voice to those involved. The project led to a documentary and honors the queer community.
About Mo Verlaan
Mo Verlaan works analog and experimentally with old photographic paper. Her work explores impermanence and time. Together with her wife Nita, she captured their love, which culminated in a project about dying olive trees as a metaphor.
About Pedro Matias
Pedro Matias is an artist and researcher based in Amsterdam. They create immersive, performative environments that explore the body, desire, and queer identity, imagining new forms of intimacy, collaboration, and possible futures.
About EMBRACE
EMBRACE is an exhibition about the relationship between the LGBTQ+ community and religion. In four spaces, artists such as Arjan Spannenburg, Frans Franciscus, Sanda Sudor, and MVS Gaystation present works that invite conversation, connection, and new insights.
About MOREPIXX?
The ninth edition of MOREPIXX? at the Ramses Shaffy House features an exhibition of the nominated and winning gay fetish photos of 2025, presented in a bold and sleek style.
About Martin of Holland
Martin of Holland creates uncompromising gay-erotic art and was the last person in the Netherlands to be imprisoned in the 1950s–60s for his work. His fight against censorship helped liberate later generations from hidden prejudices.
About Matthias Herrmann
In Dream Days Forever, Matthias Herrmann presents portraits full of humor, eroticism, and self-worship. His work is explicitly gay, playful, and unabashedly physical, yet transcends the personal. He ranks internationally among the top tier, alongside Mapplethorpe and Cindy Sherman.
About Devon Ress
Born in Canada and raised in 1980s Los Angeles, Devon Ress has lived in Amsterdam since 1989. His colorful work combines post-punk, collage, surrealism, and humor, depicting playful figures in dreamlike compositions.
About Thomas van Dun
Thomas van Dun began his career as a composer and later developed into a visual artist. His work has been exhibited in prominent museums such as the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Centraal Museum in Utrecht, and the Westfries Museum.
About Dennis Koot & Ton of Holland
Dennis Koot and Ton of Holland combine visual power with playful and bold designs. Their work ranges from autonomous art to design, influenced by subcultures, fashion, and aesthetics. Versatility, expression, and context are central to their practice.
About Maxime de Waal
Since 2011, Maxime de Waal has been organizing the Italo Disco party Disco Total and, between 2017 and 2024, has photographed colorful partygoers. Her work presents honest, powerful images of nightlife styles in daylight — a tribute to club culture.
About The WearHouse
The WearHouse is a new initiative by Yotam Bahat and Daniel Jirkovsky in the heart of Amsterdam. It is an active studio and platform for jewelry, where new ideas and concepts are presented through exhibitions, events, and experimentation.
About ILHIA
This exhibition is not about art, but honors five influential figures from the community — this year’s pride icons: Anne Krul, Dolly Bellefleur, Glenn Helberg, Miriam van der Have, and Thomas Wormgoor.
About Diederik Verbakel
Queer artist Diederik Verbakel (DIED) combines screen printing, performance, and mixed media into raw punk art full of color, trash, and guts. His work celebrates creative freedom, identity, and transformation, while critically addressing overconsumption through material reuse.
About STERKWATER
Ronald Eduard and Soek Zet each preserve ideas in their own way: Ronald creates new bodies, while Soek uses their own body. In a basement in the red-light district, they present work that questions and transforms entrenched ideas about ‘the other’.
About Club Cock
Erik Wong and Simon de Boer work at the intersection of design, language, and social engagement. Both combine graphic design with writing, podcasts, fashion, or neighborhood projects. From the pluriverse to tiny exhibitions, they create space for stories and connection.
About kunstRUIM
Eyes on Art is back with six local queer artists. From sparkling ceramics to colorful watercolors, wearable statements, and dreamy drawings — discover the work, meet the creators, and celebrate love and creativity at kunstRUIM during Pride!
About Gabriel Batenburg
Gabriel Batenburg rediscovered his creative drive through photographer René Zuiderveld. As a technical draftsman and photographer, he captures architecture, street life, portraits, and fetish. With careful post-processing, he gives his images extra power, atmosphere, and a personal signature.
About Geert-Jan Kuijpers
Geert-Jan Kuijpers presents portraits full of emotion, cityscapes inspired by Asia, and works exploring eroticism, voyeurism, and exhibitionism. Using acrylic, ink, and oil paint, he reveals what lies behind the mask.
About Wijnand Looise
Wijnand Looise presents an exuberant selection of over 50 watercolors and pen drawings: Bulges and Chesthair Portraits. A tribute to masculinity, body hair, and humor, featuring playful, sensual lines and a disarming, idiosyncratic eye.
About Treehouse
Gabriele Bonomi, Vico Persson, and Quintus Glerum explore queer identity, desire, and transformation in their own idiosyncratic ways. Their work merges food, waste materials, and technology into poetic installations that play with visibility, vulnerability, community, and the power of imagination.
About AMSTEL X REMBRANDT
Iztok Klančar explores queer identities through cinematic landscapes, Tim Weerdenburg combines fashion photography with theatrical bodies on film, and Viandiko entices with minimalist eroticism. Three artists, three perspectives on sensuality, identity, and the body as a powerful visual medium.
About Paul Derrez
Paul Derrez designs bold jewelry for men and women, often theatrical or gay, always festive. His silver and acrylic creations — clear in form, sometimes laser-cut — are wearable, colorful, affordable, and based on iconic earlier designs.
About Hooi-Ying Zhang
Hooi-Ying Zhang, also known as Ash, is a Rotterdam-based artist, performer, and researcher. Through dance, poetry, and visual art, Ash explores themes such as love, loneliness, and diaspora. Their work connects bodies, stories, and communities with vulnerable strength.
About Claudy Jongstra
LOADScollection, founded by Claudy Jongstra and her son Jesk, creates ecological textiles using natural fibers and plant-based dyes. The brand combines beauty with sustainability and presents a collection during Pride Amsterdam that celebrates biodiversity, regeneration, and diversity.
About Bastienne Kramer
Bastienne Kramer creates disruptive sculptures and installations that offer a unique interpretation of the concept of queering. She draws inspiration from objects found in art and popular culture, merging and transforming them into artworks with new meanings. For Pride Amsterdam, she presents her sculpture Trans Mars von Willlendorf, which is on display during the Art Zuid Sculpture Biennale in Amsterdam.
About Eep Seeber
Eep Seber’s self-portraits explore identity and what it means to fall outside the ‘normal’ image. His face is unrecognizable, challenging judgments based on appearance. He poses the question: Do you truly understand what you're seeing, or does it trigger a (pre)conception?
About Pride
In 2025, Pride Amsterdam is all about LOVE – as a unifying force in a world full of division. This year, once again, ITA opens its doors during Pride to celebrate love in all its forms, placing love, diversity, and inclusion at the heart of everything we do. The program you're currently viewing is part of ITA Pride. Together, we celebrate, raise awareness, and continue building a world where everyone is free to be themselves.
