In “op hoop van zegen / to hope for a blessing”, 28-year-old Dutch artist Rik Nieuwdorp explores the elemental power of air as a vital force that connects all life, cultures, and environments. The exhibition is the result of a three-month residency at Chinese European Art Center in Xiamen, where the artist developed a body of work inspired by the ecological, symbolic, and spiritual dimensions of wind.

Drawing from ancient traditions of nature worship, the project contemplates how humanity has long revered natural forces as divine and sustaining. In today’s climate crisis, this reverence feels more urgent than ever. Through vibrant, high-contrast and psychedelic paintings, illustrations and objects, Rik pays homage to wind as both a metaphor and a material force: invisible yet ever-present, carrying seeds, stories, and change.

The exhibition includes (amongst other work) an homage to the birds, an invitation to listen to the quiet whispers of the wind and a hopeful outlook on a green future — merging idealism with pragmatic reflections on sustainability and the energy transition. Here, nature and technology are not opposites but collaborators, and the wind becomes both symbol and solution.

With “op hoop van zegen / to hope for a blessing”, the artist invites visitors to pause, breathe, and reconnect with the elemental rhythms that shape our shared existence. Bless the wind. Float, feel, be.

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