The Embassy of Inclusive Society

This year the Dutch Design Week includes The Embassy of Inclusive Society; a place where participation for all and inclusiveness in the world of design are the themes of discussion. The Embassy has taken the form of a hair dresser: any visitor and non-visitor can sit down and get their hair cut. This represents the inclusive theme; the hair dresser is a place where all kinds of people meet. Osepa’s work fits perfectly with this chosen theme, as it asks questions about inclusiveness in the barbershop

Sinta Ketu (sit still)

In this work Kevin Osepa explores the importance of the barbershop to black men and its relationship with homophobia. These barbershops usually function as a safe space in the face of racism. But they’re unwelcoming to black gay men. Osepa spent a few weeks working in his local barbershop to capture intimate moments between barber and customer when all that hyper-masculinity briefly vanishes.

New work

In 2019 Osepa won the ING Unseen Talent Public Award with this series. His prize was a commission to make an artwork for a new ING office. His work … is now on display in our new office Maple!

Museum MORE (Gorssel, NL): Jan Worst

July 9th to October 29th 2023

Kunsthalle Göppingen (DE) : Arjan van Helmond - First Person Singular

Arjan van Helmond is interested in painting as a medium that helps us think about objects, places and representations of spaces of our daily lives. His art practice focusses on appropriating through painting the unspectacular and even banal aspects of daily life. Like the backdrop to a moment in someone’s life, this room full of chairs, boxes and personal possessions seems to have a story to tell.

However, that’s not necessarily what Arjan van Helmond had in mind with this work. Depicting the unspectacular and even clichéd aspects of our day-to-day existence with evocative, realistic detail, all Van Helmond really wants is to help us think about and analyse the things and places around us.