Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance Amsterdam proudly presents the Arcus Pride Art Exhibition 2024. The exhibition is designed to challenge perceptions and provoke thought and conversation through artworks from various disciplines that showcase the fluidity of gender and sexual diversity. It will run from early June until mid-July at Clifford Chance’s Amsterdam office and has been organised in close collaboration with the Young Collectors Circle.

Pride without Borders

This year's theme, Pride without Borders, emphasises the idea that Pride and identity know no boundaries. This is reflected in the background of each of the seven artists who showcase their work in this exhibition. Each artist uniquely expresses themes of gender and sexual diversity, creating an exciting mix of established and emerging talent.

The rights of queer communities are under threat worldwide. Homosexuality is, for example, still illegal in sixty-four countries, with twelve of those imposing the death penalty. Even in countries where it is legal, physical safety is not always guaranteed. That is why it is crucial to offer visibility to artists from LGBTQIA+ communities and their allies – and to celebrate them. Their unique voices and lived experiences provide a fuller understanding of what it means to be human.

However, it extends beyond this: highlighting queer experiences can help us understand other issues better. Subjects like masculinity, social exclusion, heteronormativity or even climate change can be viewed through a so-called queer lens. It forces us to rethink norms and values that are often taken for granted. In academia, this is known as 'queering' information. If the term 'queer' is broadly interpreted in its original context – as contrarian, different, strange or twisted – it allows us to challenge certain conventions. Binary oppositions such as male-female and gay-straight, for example, are not universal or natural in any sense. Rather, they are socially constructed and historically determined. Analysing these can lead to a more nuanced approach to human behaviour and identities. Various museums and research institutes worldwide adopt this methodology, incorporating queer perspectives, history and culture, and actively questioning norms and underlying societal structures.

In this exhibition, for instance, David Benjamin Sherry uses a queer gaze to examine climate change and myths about the American landscape. Alex Avgud compares the exclusion he felt as a gay man in Russia with his lived experience as a migrant in the Netherlands. Linus van der Maas explores heteronormativity, examining in different ways how heterosexuality sets societal norms and its implications for queer communities.
 

Yamuna Forzani (United Kingdom, 1993) is a multidisciplinary artist and queer activist who strives to create a utopia in which LGBTQIA+ communities are celebrated in all their diversity. Her practice, centered on textiles, combines fashion, photography, dance, installation and social design. She experiments with techniques such as 3D knitting and jacquard weaving. In her work she also incorporates visual codes from street art and the psychedelic aesthetics of the sixties. Forzani is also inspired by the Ballroom scene, an underground subculture that emerged in the 1980s in New York, in which Black and Latino queer communities created safe spaces for free expression. She plays an active role in this subculture, regularly organising events that bring together theater, music, fashion and performance art.

Forzani graduated from the Textile & Fashion department of the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. In 2022, she received the Dutch Design Award for her artistic direction of the Utopia Ball x Fashion Show. Her work is included in the collections of TextielMuseum Tilburg, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Frans Hals Museum and Stedelijk Museum Schiedam.
 

In her work, Sarah Mei Herman (Netherlands, 1980) explores themes like relationships, loneliness, desire and the human need for physical closeness, capturing both the connections and differences between people. Her work primarily focuses on the vulnerability and transience of transitional phases, with a special focus on young people. In 2019, Herman was approached by Emerson & Wajdowicz Studios for a project on LGBTQAI+ communities in China. She returned to Xiamen, where she had completed a residency in 2014, to photograph fourteen queer individuals and couples, capturing their personal environments and interviewing them about their lives, loves, and fears. Due to the pandemic, Herman couldn't return to Xiamen, so she continued the project in Europe, photographing young members of Chinese LGBTQAI+ communities who had moved to the continent. The result of this project is the photobook ‘Solace’ (2022), which offers an insight into the diversity and complexity of queer communities and their lived experiences.

Herman studied Photography at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and The Royal College of Art in London. She has won several prestigious awards, including the American Vintage Photography Prize 2018 and the Rabobank Dutch Photographic Portrait Prize 2018. She was also nominated for the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize and the V&A Parasol Women in Photography Prize. Her work is part of the collections of the AMC, Rabobank, and the Dutch Ministry of Home Affairs.

David Benjamin Sherry (United States, 1981) uses his queer identity to offer a unique approach to the landscape, he is effectively queering the American West. His work explores the complex relationship between human beings and nature, essentially stemming from a form of climate grief. His unusual and sometimes disorienting colour choices disrupt traditional landscape representations, challenging viewers to consider nature from a new and queer perspective. Sherry uses analog photography to provocatively capture the majestic and recognisable landscape, aiming to create a deeper connection between the viewer and nature. He physically navigates the wilderness of the American West, areas where heterosexual masculinity is celebrated — and is often considered unsafe for LGBTQAI+ communities. In doing so, he integrates his own queer experience into his art. His large-scale photographs in striking and saturated colours combine personal stories with environmental awareness, breaking entrenched and glorious myths about the American West.

Sherry studied Photography at the Rhode Island School of Design and Yale University. His work is part of the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum, the Walker Art Center, the Saatchi Collection and the LACMA
 

Alex Avgud (USSR, 1986) grew up in Russia and graduated from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague in 2019. His practice focuses on themes such as migration, sexuality, (hetero)normativity, mechanisms of oppression, and the relativity of freedom. He is interested in the ways the individual conflicts with the collective, inviting us to consider our own role in society. Avgud combines photography with choreographed performances. His personal life is paradoxical: he left his homeland to freely express his homosexuality but experiences exclusion in the Netherlands as a migrant, living outside the norm.

Avgud's work has been exhibited at Les Rencontres d’Arles festival (with FOAM Fotografiemuseum), Unseen, EYE Film Museum and the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo. After graduating, he received the Ron Mandos Photo Talent Award during the 'Best of Graduates 2019’ show. He was also nominated for the Dior Photography Award 2020 and the Kassel Dummy Book Award.
 

Linus van der Maas (Netherlands, 2002) works as a digital artist. In often large-scale works, they explore the ambiguity of queer art through their own experiences as a queer person. The artist also examines the broader cultural and social implications of queerness in society. The resulting work celebrates the complexity, versatility, and fluidity of queer art and identity while criticizing the rigid and restrictive categories and labels that are often imposed on queer individuals in a largely heteronormative context. The viewer is invited to reconsider certain assumptions about identity and embrace the many nuances of queerness.

Van der Maas graduated from HKU in Utrecht, and in 2023 their work was featured in the ‘Best of Graduates 2023’ show at Galerie Ron Mandos.

Sander Coers' (Netherlands, 1997) practice balances between documentary and fiction, often reflecting on coming-of-age stories of his friends, family and peers, with a focus on young men. His works are both intimate and universal, aiming to show new representations of masculinity in more fragile and fluid forms. For his graduation project 'Come Home’, he followed five young men for a year, capturing their struggles of growing up and masculinity in a small community. A notable example is his cousin Jens, who comes out of the closet and transforms from an insecure boy to a confident man. Coers' work is known for its nostalgic and cinematic imagery, inspired by (romanticised) memories of his youth in Zeelandic Flanders. Through the use of saturated colours and dreamy scenes, his photographs seem to come straight out of an old photo album. For his latest project ‘POST’, Coers explores the constructed nature of memories and masculinity through an AI bot he trained. These images are inspired by his grandparents' family albums, raising questions about the authenticity of our perceptions and memories — not least because we usually only tend to capture the beautiful moments.

Coers studied Photography at the Willem de Kooning Academy, and his graduation project immediately earned him an RM Photo Award. His work was also nominated for the Rabobank Portrait Prize, the Nikon Emerging Talent Award and the Palm Photo Prize, and NRC hailed him as the Rising Star of 2022. He is also one of the Foam Talents for 2024-2025, and his work has been included in the collections of the Rabobank and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Trees Heil (Netherlands, 1993) has a multidisciplinary practice that includes photography, (short) video and performance. She is interested in the fluidity of human beings, exploring themes such as intimacy, identity, fantasy and human interaction. In her work, she constructs alienating situations in which people, their behaviour, and the spaces they inhabit gain a fleeting and often poetic new context. Despite the staged setup, there is always room for spontaneity and chance. In her work, Heil uses a variety of materials such as plaster, jute, hair, paint, and the (sometimes naked) bodies of her models.

Heil studied Photography at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and her work has been exhibited at Het Hem, Museum IJsselstein, Marres, Kunstliefde, WORM, Frascati Theater and W139. This year, her work was part of the Prospects exhibition of the Mondriaan Fund at Art Rotterdam

In 2024, we turned our Amsterdam office into a unique art exhibition exclusively curated for Clifford Chance. The Young Collectors Circle brought together seven artists that work with different media and forms of representation to make the vernissage as unique and diverse as the artists themselves.

Each year, the Arcus Pride Art Exhibition holds a special place in our hearts as it showcases artworks by LGBTQIA+ and supporting artists who guide us through the fluidity of gender and sexual diversity, fostering an environment of open dialogue. In 2024, we invited our Arcus members and allies, community, and clients to celebrate love and identity in all its forms and campaign for a world where Pride knows no borders.