Julien Creuzet, solo PRIZE 2025, courtesy the artist, Mendes Wood Gallery DM
Would global uncertainty weigh on the morale of Belgian and European collectors for the 41st edition of Art Brussels? Although things are somewhat strained, there is clearly reason to remain optimistic, and that’s the stance taken by Nele Verhaeren, as she shared with us in her recent interview (link). Everything is in place to make this an unmissable experience, set against a backdrop of numerous Off proposals from galleries, collectors, and artist collectives, which I will revisit. The strengthened support for the Prizes is also a decisive factor, as is the evolution of the Rediscovery sector towards ’68 Forward, allowing for a stronger Belgian presence starting from that special historic year, the creation of the fair. From this overview, a strong presence of Southern Europe emerges, notably Portugal, with the remarkable Filomena Suares and Vera Cortês. The focus on painting is striking, a Flemish tradition that is often reinterpreted, especially as the SMAK in Ghent explores the vitality of this medium in a specific exhibition.
Centerfold 2025 courtesy the artist, Anonymous Gallery, David Plas photography
Cristine Brache, Anonymous Gallery (New York/Mexico)
The Cuban artist and filmmaker based in New York Cristine Brache reflects on the tragic fate of the Canadian actress and model through various motifs of obsolescence as a vector of nostalgia (vintage TV monitor, wilting roses, etc.). Missing and fragmented images, caught between appearance and disappearance, it’s speaking and questionning the aura and voyeurism.
The artist’s capacity of mirroring the sedimentation of image over time in the same cadence as cultural memory, both preserving and distorting is appealing.
Olivier Beer, Almine Rech (Paris/Brussels/London/New York/Monaco/Sanghai)
The series Resonance Paintings from the Monet Series unveiled during the 2024 Normandie Impressionniste Season, this visual experience by the British artist takes synesthesia in art to new heights and captivated us at the last Biennale de Lyon.
After recording the sounds of the Water Lily Pond in Giverny, Oliver places a speaker beneath a horizontally stretched canvas sprinkled with dry powdered pigment. The vibrations from the pond’s sounds make the canvas tremble, moving the pigment into visual representations of the sound waves. In addition to the natural sounds of the pond, Oliver also incorporates musical harmonies to enrich the paintings. These vibrations create undulating geometric patterns on the surface, which are then fixed in place using a unique technique developed by the artist.
KRJST Studio, Cosmogonie, tissage Jaquard, et tissus mélangés, H 1000 x L 250 cm, 2022 ©amber_vanbossel
KRJST Studio, La Forest-Divonne (Paris/Bussels)
The gallery participates in the Monumental Artworkds section, curated by Carine Fol (link to my interview). It is both outdoor (a little confusing presentation) and inside the fair. Trained at La CambreJustine de Moriamé and Erika Schillebeeckx are very challenging players in the revival of tapestry in contemporary art. A unique language between textile and sculpture, a very twisted version of traditionnal skills. the gallery has recently opened a new space in the city, in Louise district (link to my interview with Marie-Hélène La Forest-Divonne, director during Brafa).
Mounir Eddib, Ron Mados Galerie (Amsterdam)
In addition to major artists such as Hans Op de Beeck and Erwin Olaf, the gallery is presenting a solo show by the Belgian-Moroccan artist Mounir Eddib.
Influenced by themes of transcultural identity and migration,his mother having been born in Western Sahara, he pays tribute to Amazigh and Sahrawi folk rituals and magical traditions. Giving voice to marginalized communities, with a personal connection through his grandfather who worked as a miner, his art draws on talismanic symbolism. He incorporates materials traditionally believed to offer protection, such as lead, cedarwood tar, indigo-dyed cloth, and industrial waste sourced from former African mining sites.
Mircea Suciu, Keteleer Galllery (Antwerp)
Raised in communist Romania, Suciu developed an acute awareness of how imagery can be manipulated to influence perception, a formative experience that continues to inform his artistic practice. His work explores a wide yet interwoven range of themes, from the psychological effects of trauma to the structures of control and oppression. Reflecting on Romania’s shift from communism to capitalism and globalization, his paintings capture the cultural and historical tensions embedded in this transformation. Classical references, from Greek antiquity to Renaissance figures like Botticelli and masters such as Velázquez, Goya, Chaim Soutine, anchors his exploration of contemporary issues, including racism, colonialism, and social unrest.
Using a distinctive technique that blends monotype, oil, and acrylic, Suciu creates multilayered compositions that are both visually compelling and intellectually provocative.
Lucia Tallovà, TOMAS UMRIAN CONTEMPORARY (Bratislava)
At Art Brussels, Lucia Tallová unveils new pieces from several of her ongoing series—Unstable Monument, A Room with a View, and Fragility of Caryatid. Working through photography, collage, and assemblage, she explores the delicate balance between permanence and impermanence. Her works reconfigure remnants of the past, transforming them into evocative compositions that speak to both fragility and enduring resonance.
Tallová’s practice is deeply anchored in the acts of collecting and archiving. She draws upon found objects, vintage photographs, books, and discarded materials, weaving them into narratives that blur the lines between reality and fiction. By layering textures, materials, and temporal references, she constructs melancholic yet poetic worlds shaped by both personal and collective memory. The surfaces she uses—weathered wood, ink-marked pages, and timeworn photographic film—are not just materials but carriers of history, imbued with imperfection and vulnerability. In her hands, history is not something static, but fluid and mutable, inviting the viewer to encounter memory as a shifting, subjective experience.
Jean-Baptise Caron and Nicolas Boulard, 22.48 (Paris)
The works of French artists Jean-Baptiste Caron and Nicolas Boulard invite us to reflect on water’s fluid nature, its delicate balance between stillness and motion, and the ways it shapes our perception of the world.
In Attraction, Jean-Baptiste Caron disrupts the natural order: two massive marble blocks appear to be held together by a delicate film of water, defying both gravity and weight. The work blurs the boundary between the ephemeral and the eternal. In Mécanique des fluides, Caron gives form to the invisible, casting the swirling motion of a whirlpool in aluminum, freezing a fleeting, liquid moment in time.
Nicolas Boulard, by contrast, adopts a more industrial approach to water. His three glass works , La Loire, Île de Bondésir, Mer du Japon, Wakkanai, Hokkaïdo- Japon, and Soleil Levant – Le Havre — each contain water from distinct locations, transforming it into a vessel of memory. His Cuve mélancolique #2 d’après Alberto Giacometti, part of a series of stainless steel sculptures, is conceived to hold liquid, merging minimal form with poetic function.
Ed Templeton, Lurking in Copenhagen, courtesy the artist, NILS STÆRK gallery
Ed Templeton, NILS STÆRK (Copenhagen)
Ed Templeton’s Lurking in Copenhagen (2010) presents a raw and unfiltered glimpse into the everyday life of a city often seen only through its surface. In this striking series, Templeton turns his lens toward Copenhagen’s streets, capturing candid moments of people who exist beyond the mainstream gaze. Through his distinctive combination of street photography, handwritten notes, and drawings, he builds layered visual narratives that are both observational and deeply personal.
Best known for his roots in skateboarding culture, Templeton brings a unique insider’s perspective to street life and its subcultures. His work in Lurking in Copenhagen is marked by an intuitive approach, seizing spontaneous gestures and fleeting expressions that might otherwise go unnoticed. The series touches on themes of youth, isolation, and ephemeral connection, transforming ordinary scenes into powerful visual stories.
With this body of work, Templeton offers an intimate portrait of Copenhagen’s hidden corners, illuminating the subtle, often overlooked moments that quietly shape our shared urban experience.
Géraldine Tobe, Afikaris (Paris)
From the mesmerizing dance of her oil lamp’s flame, ethereal forms with controlled contours and intricate details emerge, settling delicately onto the blank canvas.
The genesis of Géraldine Tobe’s art is deeply rooted in her personal journey, from the loss of her older sister, whose spirit she feels lives on through her, to the spiritual duality of her upbringing, shaped by both traditional Congolese beliefs and Catholicism. It is this rich tapestry of experiences that fuels her practice, giving life to the narratives that inhabit her works.
Jacek Sempoliński and Mariuccia Secol, Galeria MONOPOL (Warsaw)
Jacek Sempoliński was a painter, draftsman, educator, critic, and essayist. He studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, where one of his teachers was Eugeniusz Eibisch. He received his diploma in 1956 and began teaching at his alma mater. In addition to easel painting, he initially worked in set design and fresco. Among other projects, he created polychrome decorations on townhouses in Warsaw’s Old and New Town.
Jacek Sempoliński was one of the participants in the National Exhibition of Young Artists Against War – Against Fascismat the Arsenal (1955), where he was awarded a prize. In 1976, he received the Jan Cybis Award, and in 1986, the Brother Albert Award. His most well-known painting series include Skulls and Faces.
The political upheavals of 1968 prompted Secol to abandon painting and dedicate herself fully to the feminist movement. In 1974, alongside Milli Gandini, Clemen Parocchetti, Silvia Cibaldi, and Mariagrazia Sironi, she co-founded the Gruppo Feminist Immagine di Varese (the Imagination Feminist Group of Varese) advocating not only for women’s rights but also for the recognition of female artists in the institutional art world in a society ruled by Catholic traditions and patriarchal mentality.
Adam Lupton, Galerie Russi Klenner (Berlin)
Laying down on the floor, in a solitary or meditative way, the artists’s isolation is due to personal experience of OCD and anxiety. A form of escape. Printmaking process or painting are the same for him. Through his practice, he weaves a tapestry of individual and collective rituals and myths, reflecting our attempts to grasp certainty in a world shaped by distorted perspectives.
Special Projects :
Maëlle Dufour, OYAS
Curated by Dorothée Duvivier
A toxic and burdensome landscape unfolds through an accumulation of ceramics, half oya, half jerrycan, spilling into the art fair, itself untouched by neither excess nor overconsumption. Positioned between two pristine white walls, these hybrid forms scatter across a synthetic green lawn, a surface that underscores both the artificiality of our environments and the carefully controlled aesthetics of our domestic gardens.
This chaotic assemblage exposes the absurdity of contemporary production and consumption habits. The resulting mass of objects, stripped of function, forms a disorienting terrain in which visitors must navigate both physically and conceptually, questioning their own place within this unsettling, manufactured space.
Support : Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles
PRIZES :
SOLO PRIZE, supported by TheMerode
WINNER 2025 : Julien Creuzet
Represented by Mendes Wood DM (Brussels)
The up-and-coming Brazilian gallery presents a solo show by the artist Bendt Eyckermans at its space in Les Sablons. Full house !
DISCOVERY ACQUISITION PRIZE, supported by Moleskine
WINNER 2025 : Thomas Verstraeten
Represented by FRED&FERRY (Antwerp)
68 FORWARD
WINNER 2025 : Galerie Ewa Opalka (Warsaw)
With Eva Partum
INVITED PRIZE, supported by Nathan
WINNER 2025: Night Café (London)
Meanwhile… In the City, the OFF programme !
Among the unmissable private collections: Frédéric Gordts, exhibited by ETE 78, François Huet, founder of the Huet Repolt residency, presenting a group show on the Icelandic scene in Brussels, Frédéric de Goldsmith, the creator of Cloud Seven, which I have already mentioned, who has successfully carved out a space around exhibitions from his collection. Also, the CAB Foundation, La Verrière Hermès with Eva Nielsen… And, as the cherry on top, the Willie Willie Studio, located near by the cathedral in the beautiful Reset Atelier and acting like a platform. Interviews to follow with all these personalities who are making significant contributions and helping to enhance the reputation of this capital, which manages to remain both informal and striking.
Follow the recommended itinerary of the fair !
My special interviews for the 2025 edition : Nele Verhaeren, Carine Fol, Valérie Bazin (Eric Mouchet galerie), Laetitia Ferrer and Sébastien Borderie (PRIMA)…
Practical Infos :
Place
Brussels Expo
Place de Belgique 1, 1020 Bruxelles
Standard 25 euros
In the City : Gallery Night, OFF
City Guide, organizing your venue to Brussels :
