27 may 2026, Flor Linckens
Spring Nights: an art weekend with De Ateliers and 22 galleries
This week, Amsterdam will revolve around contemporary art for three evenings during ‘Spring Nights’, an initiative by De Ateliers and 22 Amsterdam-based galleries. The programme offers a variety of openings, artist talks, book presentations and special events across the city, allowing visitors to explore a wide range of exhibitions over the course of a single weekend.
The weekend starts on Thursday 28 May with the opening of OFFSPRING 2026: ‘Constant Ballads’ at De Ateliers in Amsterdam (7–9 pm). Founded in 1963, De Ateliers is the oldest artists’ workshop in the Netherlands. The prestigious post-academic institute offers studio space and intensive guidance to twenty promising artists at the start of their careers, with half the group renewed each year. Over time, participation has become an important mark of distinction within the contemporary art world: often, alumni will go on to exhibit their work at leading museums and biennials. During the annual and widely attended OFFSPRING open studios, ten artists who began their residency two years ago will present new work. This year’s participants are Caja Boogers, Inne Feenstra, Tobias Grann, Juliette Hengst, Joyce Joumaa, Yingfei Lyu, Tosca Monteyne, Oscar Morel, Aiganym Mukhamejan and Iiris Riihimäki. The presentation unfolds throughout the entire building, including the artists’ actual living and working studios, offering a rare opportunity to discover emerging talent up close. OFFSPRING 2026 runs from 28 May until 14 June 2026. Get your tickets here.
Several De Ateliers alumni reappear throughout the city’s gallery programme during Spring Nights, including Klaartje van Essen (Bradwolff & Partners), Maria Pask (Ellen de Bruijne PROJECTS), Steven Aalders (Slewe Gallery), Michelle Chang Qin (Lumen Travo Gallery), Zijlmans & Jongenelis (andriesse ~ eyck galerie) and Vicente Baeza (tegenboschvanvreden).
On Friday 29 and Saturday 30 May, 22 galleries across Amsterdam will host evening openings from 5–7 pm, many of which are represented on GalleryViewer. Participating galleries on Friday include Bradwolff & Partners, Ellen de Bruijne PROJECTS, Lumen Travo Gallery and Slewe Gallery. Saturday’s programme continues with andriesse ~ eyck galerie, Galerie Fontana, Stigter Van Doesburg, tegenboschvanvreden and Galerie Wouter van Leeuwen. Read more below.
Friday
Ellen de Bruijne PROJECTS opens the group exhibition ‘10161055’ on Friday: a collaboration with diez gallery. The exhibition features artists working across a wide range of practices, including Laëtitia Badaut Haussmann, Simnikiwe Buhlungu, Sands Murray-Wassink, Maria Pask, Ian Waelder and Jessica Wilson.
At Lumen Travo Gallery, Michelle Chang Qin presents an exhibition of new ceramic installations. The works in ‘Sugary Fire’ are inspired by ornaments found in Chinese gardens and holiday villas, while also touching on themes such as labour, dislocation and systems of governance and commerce.
Bradwolff & Partners uses Spring Nights as a moment for new interventions within its current exhibitions. Eva Spierenburg’s exhibition ‘Moving as a Mountain’ (read an interview with the artist here) will also include work by the aforementioned Klaartje van Essen, to be added on Friday. With her "Crayon Rocks", Van Essen merges sculpture, drawing and functional objects. In the gallery’s backspace, Fahrettin Örenli presents a spatial extension of his artist book "Conspiracy Wall > ANARTIST".
In Slewe Gallery, visitors can discover Steven Aalders’ exhibition ‘Passage'. Here, the artist presents two new series he has worked on over the past two years: "Passage" and "Bridge".
Saturday
andriesse ~ eyck galerie brings together two generations of artists in the exhibition 'DUO', featuring work by Sylvie Zijlmans & Hewald Jongenelis and Sofiia Dubyna. While Zijlmans and Jongenelis translate social themes into layered installations, performances and sculptures, Dubyna’s paintings focus on the fragile dynamics within human relationships, which includes her own relationship with her mother.
Interested in hearing directly from the artist? On Saturday afternoon at 4 pm, Thomas Raat will speak about his practice and exhibition ‘As If’ in Stigter Van Doesburg.
At tegenboschvanvreden, Vicente Baeza presents the exhibition ‘I’m useless’, featuring new works on rubber in which various sanding marks, paint, pigment and imprints remain visible as part of the final piece. The surfaces often resembles skin. Baeza deliberately leaves room for accidents and imperfections, rather than fully controlling the material.
Galerie Fontana is set to open a solo exhibition by Jan Banning during Spring Nights, alongside the presentation of his new book ‘Bureaucratics Revisited’ (4–6 pm). In his new series "Blood Bonds", Banning portrays survivors of the Rwandan genocide (1994) together with the people responsible for violence against their families. The resulting images are confronting, but also reveal how fragile and complicated reconciliation can be. His well-known long-term project ‘Bureaucratics’ also returns here, in which the artist explores themes like power, bureaucracy and human systems.
In Galerie Wouter van Leeuwen visitors can see Hans van der Meer’s exhibition ‘Goalkeepers’. Over many years, Van der Meer photographed goalkeepers on amateur football pitches across Europe. The resulting images are far from glamorous, but they grasp something humorous, melancholic and unexpectedly poetic. A signing session with the artist will take place from 2–5 pm.
