Amsterdam’s red-light district is a place full of contrasts that has fascinated Sjaak & Oko since childhood. The artists capture the essence of this characteristic neighborhood in abstract art pieces. These translate not only the attractive, but also the dark aspects of the red-light district. An ode to a world in which beauty and despair go hand in hand.

A nostalgic ideal image
Both artists have a unique connection with the city of Amsterdam. Oko lived in the red-light district and is bonded to the city and her cultural history through his Amsterdam born-and-bred family. Sjaak developed a fascination for the red-light district in his early youth. When his mother took him out shopping for exotic ingredients in Asian stores in the area, she would try to shield him at all costs from the window prostitutes. Precisely that made this neighborhood extra exciting to him. As a teenager, it became a hood where everything came together: The weed-shops, the beautiful girls working the windows and the old-school “brown-cafes”.