UNTIL 17 OCT '26 | While Rotterdam Pride continues across the city until 27 September, a free exhibition at The Usual is asking you to look at familiar masterpieces differently. Queer Utopia, curated with COC Rotterdam, revisits six works from art history through a queer lens and remains on display until 17 October.
Six works through a queer lens
The temporary exhibition is installed in the Atelier at The Usual Rotterdam on Westblaak and features alternative readings of six established works, including pieces by Sandro Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Caravaggio, Jacob van Loo and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
At the centre is the idea of ‘queering’ the art historical canon. Instead of treating the traditional interpretation of an artwork as the only possible reading, Queer Utopia asks what happens when questions of love, desire, gender and identity are brought into the picture.
The exhibition does not present these interpretations as newly discovered historical facts. The point is to experiment with perspective and consider stories that have often remained less visible in established accounts of art and history.
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From Da Vinci to Caravaggio
Leonardo da Vinci’s Virgin and Child with Saint Anne is one example. The exhibition temporarily sets aside the work’s religious context and invites you to simply look at the figures: two adult women, one sitting on the other’s lap, together with a child. From there, Queer Utopia proposes imagining the scene as a family with two mothers. Pasted markdown
Caravaggio’s Boy with a Basket of Fruit receives another reading. The young man’s gaze, exposed shoulder and sensual presentation are compared with conventions historically used in depictions of Venus, raising the question of why that visual language has so often been associated with female subjects. Pasted markdown
Jacob van Loo’s Amaryllis Crowning Mirtillo takes the discussion towards gender. The painting draws on the seventeenth-century play Il Pastor Fido, in which Mirtillo disguises himself as a woman. Queer Utopia uses the work to invite a reading from the perspective of a trans woman and introduces the idea of gender euphoria.
Listen, look and interpret
Each of the six works is accompanied by a QR code giving access to an audio interpretation. Rather than replacing one fixed interpretation with another, the exhibition encourages you to decide what you see once familiar narratives are loosened.
The final works bring the story into a more modern period, including Toulouse-Lautrec’s The Seated Clowness, Mlle Cha-U-Kao. Here, the accompanying interpretation considers the performer within an alternative social world where conventional expectations around identity and behaviour could be challenged.
Queer Utopia is free to visit and remains open through 17 October 2026, meaning you can still see it after Rotterdam Pride has officially ended.
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Sip With Pride supports COC project
The collaboration between The Usual and COC continues at the bar. The hotel’s Sip With Pride cocktail remains on the menu throughout the year, with 50 per cent of the profit going to COC Nederland and specifically its Cocktail project.
Cocktail provides social contact and support to LGBTQIA+ asylum seekers and newcomers in the Netherlands. Its activities include social gatherings and contact with volunteers, with the aim of helping participants build a social network and reducing isolation.
How to get there
Queer Utopia is on display in the Atelier at The Usual Rotterdam, Westblaak 10, 3012 KL Rotterdam. The hotel is in the city centre beside the Witte de Withstraat area and is around a three-minute walk from Beurs metro station.
Exhibition: Queer Utopia
Until: 17 October 2026
Admission: Free
Location: The Usual Rotterdam
