Expositie ´If you know, you know´ (Studio Rik Versteeg)

In queer communities, not everything is said out loud. We’ve learned to speak in symbols, body language, fashion choices, and flirtatious looks — not only to find each other, but to protect ourselves. These codes are survival tactics, but also tools of connection, seduction, and play.

A SUBTLE NOD. A SHARED REFERENCE. A KNOWING GLANCE.
This exhibition taps into that unspoken language. What might look like stillness holds tension. What seems playful might carry history. Every image is layered — charged with meaning for those who know how to read it.

IF YOU KNOW, YOU KNOW.
Desire is never neutral. It’s shaped by who we are, what we’ve survived, and what we long for. In these works, kink and fetish aren’t just erotic — they’re also emotional, symbolic, even spiritual.

POWER BECOMES FLUID. ROLES GET BLURRED.
Choosing analogue film wasn’t just an aesthetic decision — it was political. The slow, physical process of shooting, developing, and printing allowed space for care, trust, and presence. No quick fixes, no instant deletes. The work embraces texture, imperfection, and intimacy. Over the course of an 8-month research project, Versteeg explored the layered ways desire, identity, and power intersects with queer spaces.

JUST CHEMISTRY.
This body of work doesn’t ask for permission or explanation — it speaks in codes, gestures, and glances.

IF YOU KNOW, YOU KNOW.

ABOUT RIK VERSTEEG
Rik Versteeg was born on April 25, 1990 in Drunen, Noord-Brabant. Growing up in a creative family of photographers, he discovered his passion for photography at a young age. During holidays he used his grandfather’s analog camera and from childhood he was fascinated by the slideshows of his grandparents’ travels. Their stories and images took on a vivid and imaginative meaning for Rik and offered an escape from the world from which he sometimes felt alienated.

In 2007 Rik started studying Audiovisual Production in Den Bosch, where he further developed his knowledge of imaging and the technical aspects of photography and film. After this education he moved to Rotterdam to study at the Willem de Kooning Academy. In Rotterdam Rik experienced the freedom to explore his feelings of alienation from society, and along the way he discovered his queer identity. His art became a means to further explore this queerness, and in 2013 he graduated with a series on conceptual fashion. Shortly after, he founded his own business as an artist.

In 2019, Rik had his first solo exhibition at Qlick Gallery in Amsterdam, where he presented an autonomous series of free work entitled The Masquerade Ball. The exhibition was well received and Rik’s work was exhibited at various art fairs in the Netherlands. In 2020, the solo exhibition Sensitive Obscurities: Exploring the Queer Subconscious followed. Four years later, his photo book Mind Mirage (2024) was published – an ode to the queer community.