FROM 17 OCT '26–7 FEB '27 | What does Rotterdam look like after most of the city has gone to bed? Three city artists spent recent months exploring its nightlife, streets and people after dark, and their work comes together in the exhibition Drawn: Rotterdam! Night Work at Kunsthal Rotterdam from 17 October 2026 to 7 February 2027.
Image: Two People Dancing at a Nocturnal Party in Rotterdam. Chalk. Tessa Biemans, 2026.
Three views of Rotterdam at night
Artists Tessa Biemans, Peyman Fazeli and Steef Offerhaus were commissioned by Rotterdam City Archives and CBK Rotterdam to explore the theme ‘night in motion’. Rather than presenting one neat portrait of Rotterdam after dark, their drawings capture fragments of a city that keeps moving while much of its population sleeps.
That means the Rotterdam night appears in very different forms. There are bodies dancing, passing emergency vehicles, street lights, nocturnal workers, graffiti writers and quieter views of the Maas. Seen together, the works form a snapshot of the people, places and moments that emerge when daylight disappears.
Biemans creates atmospheric scenes through numerous pastel drawings. Her Rotterdam ranges from steaming bodies on a dance floor and the flashing lights of an ambulance to the Maas under moonlight. Everyday observations sit beside more mysterious scenes populated by shadows and supernatural figures, leaving space for parts of the city that are less visible during daytime.
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Artists follow life after dark
Peyman Fazeli approaches darkness quite literally. Working on black backgrounds, he introduces light through detailed pencil and charcoal drawings. Illuminated clouds, street lamps and spotlights allow scenes to gradually appear out of the darkness, reflecting how our attention changes when the city itself becomes less visible.
Steef Offerhaus, meanwhile, already knew Rotterdam nightlife from the inside. Before becoming a city artist, he worked as a graphic designer and organiser in the club scene. During the project he followed several communities through the night, including taxi drivers, graffiti writers and employees working in fast-food restaurants.
Offerhaus turns those encounters into collages filled with characters and overlapping stories. His work takes a more psychedelic approach, translating the flood of impressions and encounters of a night in Rotterdam into colourful, associative compositions.
Rotterdam artists document a changing city
The exhibition continues a much older Rotterdam tradition. Artists were already recording changes in the city before the bombing of 14 May 1940, with this form of documentation becoming particularly significant during Rotterdam’s post-war reconstruction.
Until the end of the 1980s, Rotterdam City Archives commissioned artists each year to create drawings of the changing city. The tradition was revived in 2018 together with CBK Rotterdam, bringing contemporary city artists back into the archive’s collection.
Biemans, Fazeli and Offerhaus were selected this year by a jury including artist Pris Roos, representatives from CBK Rotterdam and Rotterdam City Archives, Rotterdam night culture representative Thys Boer and Kunsthal curator David Snels. Once the exhibition ends, their drawings will enter the Rotterdam Collection at Rotterdam City Archives, preserving this particular view of the city’s nights as part of its historical record.
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Visiting Drawn: Rotterdam!
Drawn: Rotterdam! Night Work runs from Saturday 17 October 2026 through Sunday 7 February 2027 at Kunsthal Rotterdam. Kunsthal is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 17:00.
From 1 October 2026, regular admission to Kunsthal is €20 for adults. Visitors aged 18 and under enter free, while CJP cardholders and students up to age 26 pay €12.50. Museum Card and Rotterdam Pass holders can visit free of charge. One Kunsthal ticket provides access to all exhibitions on view.
More information about the exhibition is available on the Kunsthal Rotterdam website.
How to get there
Kunsthal Rotterdam is located in Museumpark at Westzeedijk 341, 3015 AA Rotterdam. Eendrachtsplein and Leuvehaven metro stations are both around a seven-minute walk away, while Dijkzigt metro station is approximately ten minutes away. Rotterdam Centraal is about a 20-minute walk from the museum.
