UNSEAL
NAP+, Amsterdam, 17–20 September 2026
For NAP+, Bradwolff & Partners presents a dialogue between Eva Spierenburg and Ruta Butkute. The presentation brings together drawings, ceramic and textile works, sculptures and installations around the question of how materials take shape, transform and acquire meaning through their relationship with body, environment and time. For both artists, material is not a neutral carrier of form, but an active presence in which traces of gesture, transformation and encounter remain visible.
In UNSEAL, materials are approached as evolving structures in which traces of time, touch and the processes of making remain visible. Form is never fixed or complete: ceramics, textiles and paint retain the marks of their manipulation and development. The works reveal not only a final form, but also the processes through which they came into being.
In Eva Spierenburg’s practice, body and landscape become intertwined. Her works exist at the threshold between drawing, painting and sculpture. Materials such as ceramic, textile, cotton, pigment and paint converge in layered, tactile structures. These forms carry traces of growth, erosion and transformation, appearing as the result of a continuous process of becoming. Her works move between vulnerability and strength, between the body and the landscape, revealing how matter can continually manifest itself in new ways.
In Ruta Butkute’s work, sculpture emerges from the relationship between material, object, and space. Her installations and ceramic works develop through processes of forming, shifting, and placing. She sometimes combines ceramics with everyday objects, which can take on a different meaning when placed in a new context. By bringing materials and objects together in new ways, Butkute shows how the meaning of an object can change through the way it is used and positioned.
At NAP+, the works of Spierenburg and Butkute come together to form a space of encounter. Differences in material, scale and form become visible, opening up new connections between body, object and environment.
About the artists
Eva Spierenburg (1987, Utrecht) works across painting, sculpture, drawing, video and performance. She studied at the HKU University of the Arts Utrecht and was a resident at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam, Stöðvarfjörður in Iceland and the European Ceramic Work Centre (EKWC) in Oisterwijk (2025–2026).
Her work has been presented at, among others, 38CC in Delft, Drawing Centre Diepenheim, Kunstenlab in Deventer, the Chinese European Art Center in Xiamen and Centraal Museum Utrecht. She has participated in group exhibitions at institutions including Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, VU Art Science Gallery in Amsterdam, Chabot Museum in Rotterdam, Museum Rijswijk and Museum de Fundatie.
Spierenburg’s work is held in collections including Centraal Museum Utrecht, the AMC Art Collection, the Isala Art Collection, Collectie de Groen, the VU Art Collection and Chabot Museum, as well as private collections in Germany, Morocco and Switzerland.
Ruta Butkute (1984, Kaunas, Lithuania) lives and works in Amsterdam. She studied at the Vilnius Academy of Visual Arts and the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, and was a resident at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten from 2014 to 2015. Her practice moves between sculpture, ceramics, performance and installation, with movement and materiality as recurring points of departure.
Her work has been presented internationally at institutions and art spaces including Kaaistudios and WIELS in Brussels, M Leuven, the Contemporary Art Centre Vilnius, the Valkhof Museum, and the Van Doesburg House in Meudon. She has also participated in international residencies at the European Ceramic Work Centre (EKWC), Guldagergaard International Ceramic Research Center in Denmark, the Arita Residency in Japan, and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council in New York.
Butkute’s work is held in public and private collections, including the Lithuanian National Gallery of Art, the Contemporary Art Centre Vilnius, Amsterdam UMC, the European Ceramic Work Centre (EKWC), Guldagergaard International Ceramic Research Center, and Stichting Strand Links.
VIP Opening — by invitation
17 September, 14:00–17:00
Public Opening
17 September, 17:00–21:00
18–19 September, 11:00–19:00
20 September, 11:00–17:00