Dutch Art & Design Today

John Bezold

5.0 (4)
Arts

Art and design, from the Netherlands. 'Dutch Art & Design Today' is a podcast hosted by John Bezold, which explores these two worlds and those working within them. From publishers and artists, to designers and curators, painters and podcasters; this podcast takes listeners behind the scenes of their work, to find out why Dutch art and design is so highly regarded across cultures, and time.

May 31

Elles Middeljans

'When I have an idea for a next drawing, I only draw for that drawing. But never in the weekend do I think, “I’m bored, let’s draw.” I never do that. And the reason why, I found out, is that drawing is also consuming of all my concentration. It’s real work. Every little detail has to be on it. I love that, because without the details, my drawings could be somewhere else. But they’re not somewhere else; they’re of Amsterdam.' —Elles Middeljans For the 24th episode of Dutch Art & Design Today, I spoke with Elles Middeljans, an Amsterdam-based artist, whose work is focussed on drawings made from life in the city. In her, often large scale, line drawings, she captures urban life in a way that creates worlds within worlds. We recorded this conversation in person in her studio at the NDSM wharf in Amsterdam-Noord, a former shipyard turned creative enclave, where we were surrounded by books, plants, drawings, prints, postcards, poster tubes, and much more. Born in Brabant and trained at the Design Academy Eindhoven during the days of Li Edelkoort’s tenure as director, defined by its extreme conceptual-orientation toward design; after graduating she moved to Milan, to intern in the studio of designer Alessandro Mendini. From there, she found her way to Frame Magazine, which is also where she and I first met. After leaving Frame, Elles chose to establish herself as a full time artist in Amsterdam; the story of how she did that is fascinating. In this hour and a half long talk, we unpack that story, tracing her youth, studies, time in Italy, and what Amsterdam offers her in relation to her work. At one moment during the end of her time at Frame, she realized that drawing could be both a profession and a form of freedom. Elles draws from life, sitting outside with a foldable chair, beginning with one small detail, and allowing the image to be built line by line. From black-and-white outlines, to saturated color images—influenced by Johannes Itten and Japanese color systems—Elles’s practice turns close looking into an act of joy. We discuss her collaborations with institutions, as the Rijksmuseum and EYE Museum, and conclude with her exhibition Kleurrijk Amsterdam on the Jodenbreestraat—which saw about 30 of her drawing exhibited last autumn and winter, placing the city on display within itself. From sidewalks to terraces, tulips and passerby; she meticulously creates worlds, both real and imaginary. All on a sheet of paper. You can learn more about Elles and her work over at ⁠her website, as well as over on ⁠Instagram⁠. You can find John on X ⁠@johnbezold⁠ and at his website ⁠johnbezold.com⁠. 'Dutch Art & Design Today' is published by ⁠Semicolon-Press⁠. ISSN: 3050-6662

1h 36m
Apr 30

Oana Stan

‘I like these kind of large topics that tell us a lot about the history of our discipline; about the history of taste; about the history of art history, basically. Part of what I want to highlight with my research, is that we have a certain perception of how a pictorial tradition—as Titian, Tintoretto, Rubens—ended up disfavored at a certain point in history, or apparently fell out of favor... Frans Hals never fell out of favor. ' —Oana Stan For this episode of Dutch Art & Design Today, I sat down with Oana Stan, a Haarlem-based art historian, researcher, and cultural writer whose work focuses on early modern art, the changing nature of taste, women artists, museum history, and for instance, the reception of Frans Hals. Oana first studied philosophy at the University of Bucharest, where her interest in aesthetics led her toward art history. She then completed her BA in Art History at the National University of Arts in Bucharest, specializing in Renaissance art and writing on Venetian painting, before moving to the Netherlands to complete a master’s in Renaissance Studies at Utrecht University. Her research brings together classic looking, institutional history, collection practices, Dutch and Flemish art, and the public communication of art history across countries, languages, museums, and cities. Alongside her research, Oana also founded Women of Haarlem; a public-history walking-tour project that presents Haarlem through the lives of women who shaped the city, In this episode, Oana and I discuss how she first came to art through drawing, books, philosophy, and Renaissance painting, and how Dutch art gradually entered her field of vision through museum collections, study, and relocation to the Netherlands. We talk about her encounter with Rachel Ruysch at the National Museum of Art of Romania, the differences between Romanian and Dutch art-historical training, and her master’s research on women artists in museum collections, including display, acquisition policy, directorship, feminism, diversity, and institutional change. We then turn to her work at the RKD — Netherlands Institute for Art History, including the online Frans Hals study based on Claus Grimm’s decades of research, her work on provenance and database records, and her continuing interest in painted copies after Hals’s genre scenes. Together, these projects show how art history can move from the archives out into public life: through catalogues, collections, cities, and the steady recovery of overlooked visual histories. You can learn more about Oana and her work over at Women of Haarlem, as well as over on Instagram. You can find John on X @johnbezold and at his website johnbezold.com. 'Dutch Art & Design Today' is published by Semicolon-Press. ISSN: 3050-6662

1h 38m
10/31/2025

Lorna Mills

'I got tired of the relentless four corners of everyone's social media posts—and so the way to formally get around that, if you can't eliminate them, is to, you know; add about 10,000 corners to a work. Which seemed like a great approach, which I've stayed with, because what it allows me to do is activate the negative space. And the fact that the positive space is animated means that the objects—the pictorials that are animating on the foreground—are still defining and working to create a different animation with the negative space. And that I found intriguing and challenging. And so I continue doing it.' —Lorna Mills For the 22nd episode of Dutch Art & Design Today, I sat down with Lorna Mills, a Toronto-based artist whose digital artworks—often created from hundreds of hand-edited frames—are at once formal, frenetic, and unmistakably hers. Raised in Saskatchewan, she entered art through books and built a private museum in her imagination, guided at first by the World Book Encyclopedia and its arsenal of images. She later moved to Toronto to study painting, entering the art world through color, gesture, and pigment before moving into video, lenticular prints, and eventually digital media. Her early experiments with GIFs, both sourced and self-recorded, gave way to a meticulous visual language defined by animated collage, jagged edges, and looped visual rhythms that reframe how we see the internet—and ourselves—through a pictorial lens. In this episode, Lorna and I discuss how her work emerged from formal training and evolved through the unruly spaces of early net art, artist-run spaces, and eventually blockchain platforms. We talk about her labor-intensive process—such as cutting individual frames by hand—and the way her animations interact with scale, whether installed across Times Square or released as intimate, square-format works on Tezos. Lorna also reflects on being part of the Art & the Blockchain exhibition at Upstream Gallery in Amsterdam back in 2022; where I first came across her work installed in a space, in person; as well as for instance her long collaboration with Transfer, and how she approaches pricing and accessibility across physical and digital markets. We speak about her sustained interest in pictorial composition, her refusal of minimalism, and her embrace of the internet’s raw, unfiltered abundance. Her work is as deeply informed by the history of painting as it is by the visual delirium of contemporary online culture—and in this conversation, that full spectrum comes through. Read the essay 'The Digital Phantasmagoria of Lorna Mills'. You can find Lorna on X ⁠@lm_netwebs and at her website ⁠LornaMillsImageDump. You can find John on X ⁠@johnbezold⁠ and at his website ⁠johnbezold.com⁠. 'Dutch Art & Design Today' is published by ⁠Semicolon-Press⁠. ISSN: 3050-6662

2h 6m
09/01/2025

Adrian Pocobelli

'Oftentimes when you see digital art, it feels unrooted. It feels like it’s hard to place, especially if you’re coming out of the tradition. And what I always say is—if you want to be a part of the tradition, you have to have a conversation with the tradition. And the most simplest way of having a conversation with the tradition is actually bringing up some of those works.' —Adrian Pocobelli For the 21st episode of Dutch Art & Design Today, I spoke with Adrian Pocobelli, a Berlin-based artist, editor, and curator whose work straddles the borders between digital art, art history, visual culture, and blockchain art experimentation. Born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and shaped by years spent in Montreal, Toronto, and now Berlin, Adrian’s trajectory moves from stamp collecting, from comics and trading cards, to Tezos, and bitcoin, and the evolving pixelated poetics of web3. With a background in English literature and studio art, and an early encounter with Italian painting in the Vatican, Adrian’s work charts a long arc across visual language, medium, and memory. Most importantly for this show, one of Adrian’s works from 2022 repurposes Raphael’s portrait of Castiglone. The work was sketched by Rembrandt while it was up for auction in 1639, in Amsterdam. In this sweeping and layered conversation, we trace Adrian’s evolution from painting with inkjet printers and screen prints in Berlin to finding expressive liberation through his phone, his finger, and the emergence of blockchain-based platforms for digital art. We discuss his long-standing influence from figures as J.G. Ballard and William Burroughs; and his methodological use of randomness, repetition, and philosophical appropriation. Adrian recounts the development of his major series, including Screen Memories, The Peloponnesian War, Dante’s Inferno, and AI Girlfriend, each offering a different lens through which to view art history, contemporary systems, and visual culture. We also dive into the world of art on the blockchain: Tezos, Ethereum, and Bitcoin as ecosystems for distribution, experimentation, and visual curation. Adrian offers a deeply articulate and practical framework for understanding these platforms, and reflects on his creation of The Artist Journal, his long-running YouTube series that blends curation, commentary, and community into what he calls a “newspaper of the imagination.” From glitch aesthetics to the spiritual politics of pixel art, and from contemporary appropriation to classical citation, this conversation unpacks the logic and poetics of digital art’s second generation—one rooted in tradition but carried on-chain. You can find Adrian on X ⁠@pocobelli⁠ and at his website ⁠pocobelli.net. You can find John on X ⁠@johnbezold⁠ and at his website ⁠johnbezold.com⁠. 'Dutch Art & Design Today' is published by ⁠Semicolon-Press⁠. ISSN: 3050-6662

1h 29m
07/31/2025

Lidewij de Koekkoek

‘I think it’s our duty as a museum to address social issues, whether they’re in the past, or whether they’re happening now, because we have a societal role. We’re here for society… Art is about people. It’s about working together. It’s about how we look at each other, how we understand the world, and how we open our minds to what is unfamiliar. That’s what a museum should do.’ —Lidewij de Koekkoek For the twentieth episode of Dutch Art & Design Today, I sat down with Lidewij de Koekkoek, who is the director of the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem. Lidewij has had a long and storied career in the Dutch cultural heritage world, shaped by her international upbringing in Belgium and the United States, her art historical studies at Leiden University, and a leadership style grounded in collaboration, curiosity, and care. From her early role in journalism and public art to senior roles at institutions including the Netherlands Architecture Institute, the Textile Museum in Tilburg, and the Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam, Lidewij has built a career at the intersection of strategy, storytelling, and public value of the arts. In this hour long conversation, we trace Lidewij’s path through the Dutch cultural landscape—from the formative years of studying contemporary art and architecture through, to her later rediscovery of seventeenth-century painting, and deep belief in the relevance of historical collections today. Her career is marked by several directorial roles at Dutch museums, which have all informed her current outlook on what it means to be a museum director. We talk about her first directorship at the Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar, where she led a bold rebranding focused on the city’s Old Masters and modern art collections, and how both could be utilized to better communicate the importance of the city’s collection to the city’s citizens and their civic heritage. Alongside her time as director of the Rembrandt House in Amsterdam, where she helped reposition the museum around his studio, social networks, and contemporary relevance. Finally, we discuss her current role at the Frans Hals Museum, and how its unique bifocal identity—combining a world-class collection of early modern painting with a cutting-edge contemporary programming and collection of works—makes it a deeply human institution. But also one with challenges due to its current location, and the limited amount of space it currently allows for display, as its ambitions outsize its current capacity, concerning the depth of the museum's collection. Ultimately, Lidewij makes clear that she sees the museum’s future as grounded in Haarlem, its civic pride, and the power of visual art to reflect and reshape society. From leadership philosophy to renovation plans, and from drag performances to Dutch Impressionism, this wide-ranging conversation explores what it means to shape a museum’s future—while staying anchored in its past. Learn more about the Frans Hals Museum. Cover: Esiri Erheriene-Essi, Having Your Cake and Eating it Too, 2019, 200 x 165 cm., oil, ink and xerox transfer on linen, Frans Hals Museum, Acquired in 2024 You can find John on X ⁠@johnbezold⁠ and at his website ⁠johnbezold.com⁠. 'Dutch Art & Design Today' is published by ⁠Semicolon-Press⁠. ISSN: 3050-6662

1h 12m
02/28/2025

Jill Bolte Taylor

'When I think about Rembrandt, I think of Rembrandt as dramatic. There's a drama. An emotional something's going on; the dark colors; a three-dimensional pull into it. And that three-dimensional pull, pulls me as a person into what is going on. And I have an emotional response to being in that scene—whatever it is. So there's something about Rembrandt that is guttural; you know? I don't just look at Rembrandt and say, oh, isn't that interesting. I dive into a Rembrandt.' —Jill Bolte Taylor For the 19th episode of 'Dutch Art & Design Today', I sat down with Jill Bolte Taylor—an author, scientist, and speaker whose groundbreaking work has left an profound mark on how we understand the human brain, and ourselves. Jill is best known for her 2008 TED Talk, 'My Stroke of Insight', where she recounted her experience of surviving a life-threatening stroke in 1996 and her subsequent eight-year recovery. That talk, viewed by over 30 million people, catapulted her into the global spotlight and laid the foundation for her most recent book, Whole Brain Living: The Anatomy of Choice and the Four Characters That Drive Our Life (2021). Jill and I explore art through the lens of Whole Brain Living (WBL), discussing how her cellular anatomical framework can enrich the way we create, think about and interpret, and experience art—in all its forms. Jill's framework explores the brain’s four distinct 'characters'—left-brain thinking and feeling, and right-brain thinking and feeling. The 'we' inside of 'me'. Jill explains how these characters shape our emotions, thoughts, and interactions, providing a practical guide for cultivating balance and harmony within ourselves. What makes this conversation unique, however, is that our focus on how these insights apply to the world of art. From the analytical precision of 'Character 1' to the raw, present-moment engagement of Character 3, and the universal connection offered by Character 4, Jill reveals how art involves a holistic brain experience. We touch on iconic Dutch artists such as Rembrandt and Frans Hals, as well as the sensory and emotional power of museums, illustrating how WBL can deepen our connection to creativity, and ourselves, and art. WBL is most often used as a tool for personal growth, or having better relationship; and it’s a life philosophy that has transformed how I see and experience the world. By applying Jill’s framework to art, we turn it into a powerful lens for appreciating art as full-bodied, whole-brain experience. As the art historian Esther Pasztory once said, while we all think we understand art, but true essence often eludes us. With Jill’s insights, we move closer to unraveling its mysteries; intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually. This conversation also ventures into philosophy, drawing parallels between Jill’s work and thinkers like Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty—the last of whom emphasized the embodied nature of human experience. WBL applied to art, bridges intellectual and emotional experiences of life, offering a way to connect with ourselves and the (art) world around us. And of course, we also discuss Van Gogh, Hals, and Rembrandt. Watch 2008's 'My Stroke of Insight' Watch Jill's talk on the teenage brain Purchase the book Whole Brain Living Watch an interview with Jill about WBL You can find John on X ⁠@johnbezold⁠ and at his website ⁠johnbezold.com⁠. 'Dutch Art & Design Today' is published by ⁠Semicolon-Press⁠. ISSN: 3050-6662

1h 27m
06/30/2024

Jacquelyn N. Coutré

'Language is so important, and particularly right now; especially when differentiating the Dutch Republic from the Southern Netherlands in the seventeenth century. Not only in terms of what that meant politically, but also religiously, and how these factors influenced the way the art produced then and there, looks. I've found that when speaking to museum visitors, they would often use the words Dutch and Flemish interchangeably; so I wanted to unpack this code art historians use—when we say Dutch or Flemish—and make this distinction front and center, in the gallery didactics, here at the Art Institute of Chicago.' —Jacquelyn N. Coutré For the 18th episode of 'Dutch Art & Design Today', I sat down with Jacquelyn N. Coutré—an art historian, a curator, an all-around fascinating academic of Dutch art and history—who, since 2019, has been the Eleanor Wood Prince Curator in Painting and Sculpture of Europe, at the Art Institute of Chicago, in the USA. Jacquelyn completed her BA at the Indiana University in Bloomington, where she expanded her early interest in seventeenth-century Dutch paintings. She then moved to New York City, where she completed her MA and PhD at NYU's Institute of Fine Arts, writing her dissertation under Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann, particularly focusing on Jan Livens and his contemporaries. After her studies she returned to Indiana, where she was a curatorial fellow at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, marking her mark on the collection in numerous ways. In 2015 Jacquelyn moved to Canada, taking on the role of the Agnes Bader Curator and Researcher of European Art ,at the Etherington Art Centre, in Ontario. There she utilized her expertise in Lievens, and curated 'Leiden circa 1630: Rembrandt Emerges', which ran from 24 August-1 December 2019 and accompanied by a open-access catalogue exploring Rembrandt's peers. Since her appointment at Chicago's Art Institute, she has curated several exhibitions, initiated a rehang of the Dutch and Flemish galleries, and expanded the collection she's responsible for. In this conversation, Jacquelyn discusses her early-fascination with art, and how she found her way to Dutch and Flemish art in particular. During her research for her dissertation, she combined her interest in the literature, politics, and paintings produced during the Dutch Republic, by applying the writings of Constantijn Huygens to artistic production—leading her to become a world's leading authority on the life and work of Lievens. A Francophile since her childhood, her work in Canada left a profound impact on the ways that she approaches institutional nuances concerning the ways the past is viewed, which she unravels in our talk. To conclude, Jacquelyn talks about her plans for a future catalogue of highlights from the Art Institute's collection of Dutch and Flemish paintings and sculpture, relaying the importance of mapping the collection's formation, and the history of its curation. Learn more about Jacquelyn's work at The Art Institute. Read Walter Liedtke's 2000 article 'The Study of Dutch Art in America', originally published in Artibus et Historiae. Download the catalogue Leiden circa 1630: Rembrandt Emerges You can find John on X ⁠@johnbezold⁠ and at his website ⁠johnbezold.com⁠. 'Dutch Art & Design Today' is published by ⁠Semicolon-Press⁠. ISSN: 3050-6662

1h 37m
03/31/2024

Erica Obersi

‘We are a very vibrant country; Curaçao. But we are so much more than these cliches that pervade in mainstream thought about the Caribbean. There’s real struggles here. Real injustice and economic disparity. And it has to do with our past. But a lot of progress has been made… My art seeks to show the average Curaçaoan; the fisherman at Playa Piskadó; Carnival; Tumba performers, who have their roots in African dance. The colonial past really does still impact us, daily. And so my work in AI tries to highlight those here who are—regular.' —Erica Obersi For the seventeenth episode of 'Dutch Art & Design Today', I sat down with Erica Obersi—a Curaçao-based artist renowned for her AI creations. Our paths first intersected in the vibrant web3 sphere, particularly within the close-knit Tezos blockchain community, a platform where Erica frequently showcases her art. Raised in Curaçao, Erica has always been keenly aware of the world beyond her country's borders. Her work in the tech realm led her to spend several years in New York City, working in the city's tech industry. This period also saw her studying for and obtaining a BA in International Relations from George Washington University, in Washington D.C.. Later, Erica returned to Curacao, and more recently enrolled to study at Tilburg University for her law degree. Erica's work with AI represents a fusion of her diverse interests, ranging from the spiritual—like the power of holy scriptures—to futuristic fashion and tributes to Swedish artist Hilma Af Klint (1862-1944). Her prominence in digital art and NFTs, particularly in the Dutch Caribbean, marks her as a pioneer in the field and one of the few digital artists in the region to gain international acclaim. In early 2023, Erica's talent was further recognized when she joined SuperRare, a leading digital art marketplace and auction house. In this hour-long conversation, Erica recounts her memories of visiting Amsterdam during her childhood and visiting the Rijksmuseum with her grandmother and grandfather, and how she was taken aback by coming face-to-face with Rembrandt’s Nightwatch. She then goes on the describe the culture and the international outlook of its people, to the world at large, while also discussing what the county's museum and cutural scenes entail, before spending time discussing the legacies Dutch colonialism brought to the island, both in the past and today. While her early work explored themes related to the people, culture, landscapes, and history of Curaçao; her more recent work incorporates themes of divinity-inspired digital fashion, ideals concerning social hierarchy, excess wealth, and how the latter can lead to envy and intrigue. To conclude, Erica talks about the importance of integrity in her work and beyond her art, such as why she finds it important, as an artist, to use her platform for good. You can learn more about Erica and her work over on X @madeincuracao and on Instagram @ericaoverseas. You can find John on X @johnbezold and at his website johnbezold.com. 'Dutch Art & Design Today' is published by Semicolon-Press. ISSN: 3050-6662

1h 7m

Trailer

Coming Soon: Dutch Art & Design Today

Art and design, from the Netherlands. 'Dutch Art & Design Today' is a new show hosted by John Bezold, which explores these two worlds and those working within them. From publishers and artists, to designers and curators, painters and podcasters; this podcast takes listeners behind the scenes of their work, to find out why Dutch art and design is so highly regarded across cultures, and time. Cover Art: Mainstudio, Amsterdam. Instrumental Music: Andrey, Ukraine. You can find John on X @johnbezold and at his website johnbezold.com. 'Dutch Art & Design Today' is published by Semicolon-Press. ISSN: 3050-6662

04/14/2022

•

1 min

5

out of 5

4 Ratings

Art and design, from the Netherlands. 'Dutch Art & Design Today' is a podcast hosted by John Bezold, which explores these two worlds and those working within them. From publishers and artists, to designers and curators, painters and podcasters; this podcast takes listeners behind the scenes of their work, to find out why Dutch art and design is so highly regarded across cultures, and time.

Creator

John Bezold
Years Active

2022 - 2026
Episodes

25
Rating

Explicit
Copyright

© John Bezold
Show Website

Dutch Art & Design Today