Installation views
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Galerie Ron Mandos is proud to present the new group exhibition Nowhere but the Night, curated by Gemma Rolls-Bentley and inspired by the life and work of gallery artist Erwin Olaf (1959–2023). The exhibition Nowhere but the Night runs from 8 November 2025 to 11 January 2026.
The artists featured in the exhibition are James Bartolacci, J. Carino, Amina Cruz, Rainer Fetting, Miles Greenberg, Erin Holly, Leasho Johnson, Isaac Julien, Vidar Logi, Zanele Muholi, Erwin Olaf, Elsa Rouy, Devan Shimoyama, and Zoe Walsh. Alongside the exhibition, a performance program will unfold in collaboration with the Foundation Erwin Olaf.
(Click on the artist’s name to discover more about their practice and works)
Coinciding with the Stedelijk Museum’s major retrospective of Erwin Olaf’s work, Nowhere but the Night brings together an international group of contemporary artists to explore themes central to Olaf’s practice—namely, the communities we build and the spaces we create in order to be free. Presented in dialogue with Olaf’s photographs, the works on view are both intimate and uncompromising, capturing the ecstasy and vulnerability of queer experience with tenderness and defiance. Together, they reflect themes of liberation, desire, chosen family, and the transformative potential of nightlife—affirming the cultural and political significance of visibility, pleasure, and presence.
At the heart of the exhibition, a special installation will be dedicated to Erwin Olaf, including previously unseen works that reveal his deep connection to Amsterdam’s queer nightlife. More than a documentarian, Olaf was an instigator—shaping and celebrating the city’s after-dark world with wit, care, and audacious imagination. The exhibition’s title is drawn from Raving by writer and theorist Mckenzie Wark, who describes how trans women, “the Dolls,” find sanctuary on the dance floor, having “nowhere but the night.” Building on this spirit of liberation and care, the group of international artists gathered here echo and expand upon Olaf’s legacy, exploring the search for freedom in all its forms: the safety of chosen spaces, the joy of collective release, the intimacy of solitude. Moving between the club, the street, and the natural world, their works trace diverse geographies of liberation—each revealing how, across time and place, queer life continues to create its own sanctuaries of visibility, desire, and connection.
Erwin Olaf – Freedom at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
In October 2025, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam will celebrate the life and work of Erwin Olaf (1959–2023) with a major retrospective—the first since his unexpected death two years ago. “There are places we go to be free. Not just politically, but viscerally—free in our bodies, in our gender, in our desire,” writes Gemma Rolls-Bentley in the accompanying monograph. Erwin Olaf – Freedom pays tribute to the versatile and multifaceted artist that he was, illuminating his entire creative process.
“Amsterdam’s queer nightlife has long been such a world: rebellious, excessive, and alive with transformation. Among its most dedicated architects was Erwin Olaf, a photographer whose work both captured and shaped the city’s queer party scene.”
In addition to Olaf’s iconic series and well-known artworks, the presentation features lesser-known pieces, including videos, sculptures, commercial photography, and personal archive material. The exhibition culminates with his final work—an unfinished video.
The Curator: Gemma Rolls-Bentley
Gemma Rolls-Bentley has been at the forefront of contemporary art for almost two decades, working passionately to champion diversity in the field. Her debut book Queer Art: From Canvas to Club and the Spaces Between was a Lambda Literary Award finalist and has been highlighted as a must-read by Them, Dazed, Time Out, The Guardian, Cultured, and the Financial Times.
Her curatorial practice amplifies the work of female and queer artists, providing a platform for art that explores LGBTQIA+ identity. Gemma has curated exhibitions for a range of international galleries and institutions. Current projects include Sea State at Wolterton, Norfolk (on view until 7 December 2025) and She Sells Seashells at the Alice Austen House, New York (on view until 21 February 2026).
Gemma has taught at numerous institutions, including the Royal College of Art, the Glasgow School of Art, and Goldsmiths. She is a juror for the 2025 John Moores Painting Prize and serves on both the Courtauld Association Committee and the Leslie-Lohman Museum Acquisitions Committee.
