Utrecht is a colorful city with many projects for and by the rainbow (LGBTIQA+) community, their friends and supporters. Throughout the year, various projects organize different activities. In recent years, June in particular has been the month in which this has gained extra visibility. We are convinced that there is more space and need in Utrecht for a festival that, in addition to celebrating diversity, also acts on and stimulates freedom and variation in sexuality, gender, sexual orientation, body and relationship forms. And also shows Utrecht’s queer culture, in all its diversity!

That is why we are organising the Utrecht Queer Culture Festival from 2023. An annual event in the week around Coming Out Day on October 11. Within our festival there is room for a great diversity of program components.

For more information please check out; https://uqcf.nl/

A selection of my work will be shown during an exhibition at S.A.C. Maastricht. More information soon. 

A selection of my work will be shown during superflirtfestival — my very first time exhibiting at a music festival! Superflirt is a 100% queer-owned event by meijt, and I’m so excited to bring my art into this vibrant celebration. Two huge 5 meter billboards will be filled with my work for you all to see! 

June 19, 20 & 21 we celebrate the third edition of the Queer Arts Festival!

The Queer Arts Festival is a festival for and by the queer community and is there for everyone who wants to express, feel and celebrate themselves in their own way. During this weekend all colors are celebrated and clothes are torn!
For three days queer artists will be at the festival in a diverse program with film, performances, music, exhibitions, panel discussions, workshops and a free program. Expect drag kings, queens & royalty during the QLUB NIGHT, theater performances about breaking down boxes, films with strong queer roles in the leading role, colorful exhibitions, burlesque performances, a polyphonic queer choir, whaacking dancers and lots of glitter and disco balls.

For three festival days we celebrate queer cultures with the full diversity on the stages and in the cinema where we share queer stories and celebrate our beautiful differences. Especially for queers, allies and everyone who is curious! During the festival, the queer community is not a guest, but the host. We put together the versatile and colorful program. Kirsten van Teijn (cabaret artist) curates the programs in the halls, Malou van Doormaal (Academy for Image Formation) sets up the extensive free community program and Luuk van de Ven (All Inclusive) contributes to the film programming.

After the exuberant success of the past years, we are now looking forward to the joint then festive third edition! Welcome!

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.

Models: David, Verdigris, Lorenzo, Eren, Tijn, Hassan, Celeste, Tracy, Special K, Venus Nightingale
Photography Assistant: Mathijs de Kaper & Eren Mihael
Special Thanks: Maurice Brandts, Elvira Omerovic, AC Lans

This project has been subsidised by CBK Rotterdam