Exhibition Queer Underground
Curated by Spotlight
- Start date
- 10 March 2026
- End date
- 31 March 2026
- Location
- BG 3
- Room
- VOX-POP
Queer Underground, organised and curated by the queer student association Spotlight, sheds light on the multiple layers of queer identities and the intricate, “underground” connections to one’s cultural roots, heritage, and past experiences. The exhibition, featuring artworks by seven queer artists, invites you to reflect on the wide variety of experiences under the “queer” umbrella and their complex, intimate, entangled, and situated realities.
Join us on March 10 for the festive opening of Queer Underground.
Exhibition opening: programme
16.45 - 17.00 Walk-in
17.00 - 17.20 Introduction and panel discussion with artists | Part 1
17.25 - 17.35 Drag performance
17.45 - 18.00 Panel discussion with artists | Part 2
18.00 - 18.10 Spoken word by Zuzia
18.10 - 19.00 Closing remarks and drinks
Practical information
The exhibition opening will take place at VOX-POP (Binnengasthuisstraat 9), ground floor, on Tuesday 10 March from 17.00 - 19.00. Everyone is welcome, but due to limited capacity we kindly ask you to register.
After the opening, the exhibition will be available to everyone from Monday through Friday 10.00 - 17.00. Visiting address is the same stated above.
Queer Underground's Artists
I am a cuir (queer) embroiderer from Barranquilla, Colombia, currently based in Amsterdam. My recent work has been driven by the question of where I belong. I use vibrant colors and hand embroidery to explore my experiences of queerness, forced displacement, and migration from a Latin American perspective. Currently, I am working with Colombian refugees in the Netherlands to build collective memory through collaborative embroidery, which is part of my thesis for a Master’s in Latin American Studies at the University of Amsterdam (UvA).
Antoni Elnes is an artist currently working with acrylic painting, but in the past he has also worked with digital illustration and even drag, under the pseudonym "Nadja Hoar". His works focus on human subjects and day-to-day life, and especially showcasing queer identity, while also including elements of his Polish-Norwegian background. His work has been exhibited in Southern Norway, where he resided before moving to Amsterdam last year.
My name is Jane and I am 19 years old. I started studying art history at 11 and since then it sparked my absolute obsession everything art related — history, symbolism, techniques. This has reflected in my art, as I love filling my art with different cultural, religious and artistic easter eggs.
His focus takes place on a sociopsychological scope, focusing on subjects such as detachment, disassociation, obsessive behaviors, and the intertwined notion of guilt and pleasure. With his project Body Dysmorphia, he is opening up a window & asking the audience to observe what it means to have a body that is "enough." The question remains: How far have we come to stretch our bodies in order to feel seen, and yet, why do we feel so lonely?
I’m Patri, a freelance photographer and filmmaker from Spain. I studied Realization of Audiovisual Projects and Shows, and I have worked on various audiovisual and photographic projects for different companies. I have filmed shows, campus tours, festival, as well as projects on my own, which is what I am most passionate about. My main purpose is to show different social realities through my camera; to portray what I perceive and observe in a way that sparks questions in those who see my work.
Ukrainian artist Vitaliia Mitali, working under the pseudonym bezbrova, explores the intersection of critical theory and artistic practice, focusing on ideology, political myth, and cultural memory. Her work engages with the Ukrainian cultural and political landscape under conditions of ongoing Russian military violence, examining how war reshapes social imaginaries and produces new forms of resistance across physical and digital spaces.
As a queer Eastern European, this artist is drawn to the weird, the odd, and the whimsical. Her work explores playful estrangement and subtle unease, while her scholarly interests in the ecological humanities inform a practice attentive to entanglement, more-than-human worlds, and imaginative possibility. Her other pieces can be found published by the Wolvens collective and the London Art Based Research Centre.
About Spotlight
Spotlight is the queer student association operating with UvA Pride and open to all students in Amsterdam. Their ongoing projects include the gender-affirming clothing campaign GenderSwap, the informational campaign ENGAGE!, and the Queer Cinephile Society. They also regularly organise social and cultural events for queer community building.