Thu 21.05.2026
17h–19h
De Bouwput
Ferdinand Huyckstraat 74
In Residence:
Maddie Alexander
Alizée Bauer
Denitsa Ilcheva
This Thursday, our Artists in Residence will be presenting their work at @de_bouwput .
Come visit us to see their research, work in progress, and have the opportunity to talk to the artists.
Artist-in-Residence in May: Alizée Bauer is an artist who uses photography to connect what can be seen outside with what is hidden inside ourselves.
The camera then becomes the tool of transformation that allows her to reveal what is usually out of vision. As she walks around, she traces stories between her moods and the one of the environments that she crosses.
In her work, everything becomes the features of a presence that is both human and animal, emotion is linked to natural movements. Between inside and outside, intimate and foreign, emotion and matter; together they enclose an unspeakable state of life, seeking the world of the intangible.
Artist-in-Residence in May: Denitsa Ilcheva’s practice is grounded in the circulation of images, gestures and motifs across different media. She generates her own visual material — through painting, filming, performance or digital manipulation — and observes how these elements mutate as they move from one medium to another. This process of translation never produces a fixed result; instead, it gives rise to hybrid bodies, unstable forms and shifting narratives.
Over time, this method allows her to construct a personal mythology, where images reappear, fragment and transform rather than conclude. Her work often unfolds in serial or episodic forms, privileging duration and accumulation over resolution.
She has a strong interest in cinema, particularly in the role of light and its interaction with surfaces, materials and bodies. Light functions in her work as both a sculptural and narrative element, shaping perception and atmosphere.
Her installations are conceived as ecosystems rather than isolated objects. They bring together moving images, painted elements, objects and live performers, creating environments in which each component affects the others. At this stage of her practice, she is less interested in producing finished works than in sustaining long-term experimental processes that remain open, porous and evolving.
Artist-in-Residence in May: Maddie Alexander (They/He) is a trans artist, archivist, and arts worker based in Halifax, NS. He holds a BFA from OCAD University (2016), and an MFA from NSCAD University (2020), where they received The Reznick Family Fund for Student Creativity. Their work has been exhibited locally and internationally, with participation in residencies such as CSAV– Artists‘ Research Laboratory at Fondazione Antonio Ratti (Como, Italy), and Vermont Studio Center (Vermont, USA). He was a 2025 AGO x RBC Emerging Artist-Researcher, as well as an Artist in Residence at the SPAO Photographic Arts Centre. His practice has been supported by Arts Nova Scotia, and the Canada Council for the Arts. In addition to their artistic practice, Maddie is a Research Assistant and Public Art Manager with IOTA Studios.
His artistic practice explores lived queer and trans experiences through an autoethnographic approach, blending archival materials and personal records. Their research based projects centre themes of desire, failure, care and dissonance and are often site responsive and rooted in community collaboration. While his work reflects contemporary concerns, it frequently draws on the visual and cultural histories of 1980s and ‘90s queer activist aesthetics, primarily the DIY print and installation practices of that era. Blending analogue and digital processes is a reflection on the fluid and layered nature of their trans experience, coming together to construct something that feels real and whole.His current work uses sunprinting and video documentation as a medium to explore his research into the historic and ongoing barriers trans folks face in accessing care. Using medical ephemera and documentation, this work is deeply informed by their own experiences accessing care as a trans person.
Workshop: Photo-Etching with TOYOBO plates
🗓️ Sat. 30 May, 10:00–17:00
👤 Max. number of participants: 4
✨ Level: Beginners & Intermediate
In this workshop, we’ll transfer a digital photograph, design or drawing onto a TOYOBO plate and print from it. TOYOBO plates are light-sensitive photopolymer plates that can be exposed with UV light using a photo-positive transparency to create an etched printing surface. This versatile technique allows you to reproduce photographic and drawn imagery with the rich tonal qualities and tactile character of classical etching.
🎟️ Workshop fee: €185
The workshop fee covers most of the printing materials for the session, and you will get one extra day for free in the AGALab workshop to come back and experiment further!
💛 What’s included:
Introduction to TOYOBO Printing
1 master
Ink (black)
Paper, tools, and materials
⚠️ Important:
You must bring a printed positive print of your photo over a transparency (maximum A4)
more information about the transparency on our website.
If you require assistance with the transparency, you can visit AGALAB on the 21st or 28th of May and our workshop manager will help you with exporting the file. Printing the transparency here at AGALAB is €5.
👜 You go home with:
Your etched plate, which can be used again
A set of 2-3 prints of your own design
💌 Sign up: [email protected]
Meet our current AIRs!
Ana Tomimori is also an Artist in Residency at AGA LAB this march. The photography project Ana is currently working is a continuation of a body of work that reflects on flowers. The artist lived for seven years in a rural area of Colombia, where coffee cultivation was gradually replaced by the production of foliage used in floral arrangements. The country is the world’s second-largest exporter of flowers. The Netherlands controls about 60% of the global cut flower trade and exports throughout Europe. The artist has been working on an image taken in Cachipay, at a warehouse for foliage intended for export.
Ana has a Master in Visual Arts at ‘University of Sao Paulo’ (ECA, USP). Being nipo-brazilian, her multimedia work frequently talks about memory, Latin America, feminism and non-fix identity. She was at Jan Van Eyck Academie Residency (Netherlands, 2024), participated of many ehxibitions as “Marabunta” (Mitre Galeria, Brazil, 2025), Maastricht Museam Night (2024), Feira del Millon (2023, Colombia), Finca de Descanso (Tranquilandia, Colombia, 2022).
This March, we’re excited to share the work of one of our Artists in Residence, Oli D’Cruz.
During their time at AGA LAB, Oli has been experimenting with monotype and etching, working across paper, textile, and aluminium.
By using unconventional materials—such as Tetrapak packaging as printing plates—they explore texture, layering, and non-linear forms of storytelling.
The end date of their residency coincides with the deadline announced by the government of India to make the forests of central India 'Maoist free'. This is an operation to ethnically cleanse the Adivasi communities in the region and open it up to mining companies like Adani, Vedanta and Tata Steel. This act of erasure has informed the work that they've made during the residency at Aga Lab.
Oli works with video, animation, sculpture and puppetry to build fictional and possible worlds. Through these worlds, they question the disproportionate effects of systems of extraction on bodies and land. They are interested in the relationships that are made either possible or impossible as a result of these systems.
The commemorative stamp exhibition @museumhetschip has officially come to an end. From October until January, the former post office at Museum Het Schip hosted stamps created in honour of Amsterdam’s 750th anniversary — all printed at AGA LAB using a wide range of graphic techniques.
To close the exhibition, we welcomed the participating artists back to AGA LAB for a meet-and-greet. Stamps were collected, unsold editions were swapped, and homemade apple pie was shared. A beautiful way to mark the end of this special collaboration.
Thank you to everyone who took part 💛
Photos by @elskockenart
NL:
De tentoonstelling met herdenkingspostzegels in @museumhetschip is officieel ten einde.
Van oktober tot en met januari waren in het voormalige postkantoor postzegels te zien ter ere van het 750-jarig bestaan van Amsterdam — allemaal gedrukt bij AGA LAB met uiteenlopende grafische technieken.
Ter afsluiting verwelkomden we de deelnemende kunstenaars weer bij AGA LAB voor een meet & greet. Postzegels werden opgehaald, onverkochte edities geruild en er werd huisgemaakte appeltaart gedeeld. Een mooie manier om deze bijzondere samenwerking af te sluiten.
Dank aan iedereen die heeft meegedaan 💛
Foto’s door @elskockenart
Today, Frederiek (@studiofredja ) spent the day in our silkscreen studio.
Although she has been printing for over five years, she decided last October to fully commit, and since then has been working on a growing number of commissioned projects. She only recently started using AGA LAB, but says she fell in love with print the very first time she tried it.
As her work keeps expanding in scale, she came to us for our larger-format screen printing facilities. For Frederiek, the most exciting moment is lifting the screen and seeing what has actually appeared on the paper. Did it turn out as planned? Are there unexpected details - or as she calls them, - little “presents”?
A little throwback to Bouw Open back in December!
Thank you so much @akuaalto for designing a new AGA LAB logo for textile prints. And of course to our core members for contributing works that helped us collect donations throughout the day! It was great to share the space with both familiar and new faces:) Hope to see you soon again!
photos by @eoincarey_photo
New Voices!
New work!
New energy!
Come see the beautiful outcomes and the striking works-in-progress of our artists in residence at AGA LAB in January this
📆Thursday, January 29
from 17:00-19:00
@ AGA LAB
📍De Roos van Dekamaweg 7
artists:
@arre.alla@girlmax@chantalvanrijt
#agalab #artistinresidence #printmaking #softpower #amsterdam
Today at @aga_lab OPEN BOUW @de_bouwput
All the amazing creative studios at Broedplaats BOUW opens their doors from 16:00-21:00
We’re also selling artworks from our core group on donation basis!
This last year has been a struggle for us due to the lack of structural funding, so any support will help us
#openbouw #agalab #screenprinting
