Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam Presents 'Beyond the Manosphere: Masculinities Today'
The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam invites visitors to explore the complexities of modern masculinity in its new international group exhibition, "Beyond the Manosphere: Masculinities Today." Running from April 17 to August 2, 2026, this exhibition critically examines what it means to be a man in contemporary society, moving beyond simplistic and polarizing viewpoints.
A Fresh Look at Masculinity in Amsterdam
Stepping away from the narrow and often problematic idea of a "manosphere," the exhibition reframes masculinity as a vast, multifaceted territory. It challenges visitors to consider the diverse spaces and experiences that define masculinity, acknowledging both its potential for power and its inherent vulnerabilities. Rather than affirming prevalent online narratives, the show aims to unpack, question, and expand understandings of the subject.
The artworks on display delve into masculinity as an expression of power and performance, but also as a personal and often contradictory lived reality. Visitors will encounter works that portray masculinity as conflicting, ordinary, unstable, and tender, moving beyond familiar stereotypes.
Featuring a Diverse Group of Artists
"Beyond the Manosphere – Masculinities Today" brings together an intergenerational roster of 35 artists. The exhibition spans works from the 1960s to the 1990s by artists like Hans Eijkelboom, Eduardo Paolozzi, and Sophie Calle, which ground masculinity within historical contexts of modernity, postwar consumerism, industrialization, and psychoanalysis.
More recent and newly commissioned pieces from artists such as Hamishi Farah, Sara Sadik, and Amanda van Hesteren tackle contemporary perspectives. These works explore masculinity through themes of intimacy, queerness, labor, race, class, fetishization, vulnerability, and popular culture. Across these diverse contributions, masculinity emerges not as a fixed identity but as a dynamic interplay of representations, gestures, desires, and contradictions, where dominance and fragility often coexist.
New Commissions and Performances
A number of pieces have been specially created for this exhibition. These include works by Reba Maybury, Jasmine Gregory, Sven Gex, and Hamishi Farah, which challenge traditional power dynamics, explore wealth as a white and male privilege, examine contemporary templates of masculinity influenced by online culture, and reflect on new prototypes of successful masculinity.
SoiL Thornton’s Husband Chair, an inflatable object, is created site-specifically for the Stedelijk, designed to block a passageway. Additionally, Zhana Ivanova will present a new performance that investigates how masculinity is conveyed through gestures and movements. Performances are scheduled for opening night (April 17), and on April 18, May 9, May 10, June 13, and June 14, offering an engaging live element to the exhibition.
Melanie Bühler, curator at the Stedelijk Museum, highlights the exhibition’s focus on the "diffuse power structures and emotions underlying masculinity: authority and violence, but also desire, protection, comfort, and strength." Rein Wolfs, director of the Stedelijk Museum, emphasizes how the exhibition connects to current societal topics, inviting nuance and discussion in contrast to often polarizing online discourse.
An accompanying publication, available in English and German, features contributions from various writers and is published by Bierke, the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, and the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. An audio tour also provides additional perspectives from various cultural commentators on selected works.
The exhibition is a collaboration between the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland, where it will travel after its run in Amsterdam.
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