Belgium Contemporary art
Francis Alÿs is a Belgian-born, Mexico-based artist.
His work emerges in the interdisciplinary space of art, architecture, and social practice. In 1986, Alÿs left behind his profession as an architect and relocated to Mexico City.
He has created a diverse body of artwork and performance art that explores urban tensions and geopolitics. Employing a broad range of media, from painting to performance, his works examine the tension between politics and poetics, individual action and impotence.
Pol Bury was a Belgian sculptor and artist, celebrated for integrating movement into his sculptures and pioneering the kinetic art movement. Born on April 26, 1922, Bury began as a painter in the Jeune Peintre Belge and the COBRA groups, later transitioning to sculpture. His most renowned work, the fountain-sculpture 'L'Octagon', is a highlight in San Francisco. His innovative art was acknowledged when his work was auctioned at Christie's in 2008, recognizing the unique nature of his contributions to art.
Pol Bury's creations can be found in permanent collections, like that of the Chelsea Art Museum, amongst others.
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René Carcan was a Belgian painter, engraver, sculptor and jeweler.
He studied sculpture at the Academy of Saint-Josse-Ten-Nod and then painting at the Brussels Academy.
Carcan developed an artistic style that has been compared to Henri Matisse, and the frescoes of Tuscany and Etruria became one of his main sources of inspiration. Carcan was a prolific and polymorphous artist, always eager to experiment. In addition to his work in printmaking, he enjoyed sculpture and jewelry making.
Ado Chale is a Belgian artist and designer best known for his exquisite mosaic inlays. Pieces of wood, minerals, or bone are sliced, arranged, and coated with resin to form the opulent surfaces. His furniture and domestic objects reference the natural world not only through the use of precious stones, metals, and organic materials, but also through the textures, patterns, and forms they express. Chale opened his first gallery in 1962. He exhibited jewelry and small side tables adorned with his unique inlay and sourced various gems and rocks via international travel. The self-taught craftsman then incorporated his acquisitions into larger pieces of furniture and sculptures attractive for their beauty and novelty in the 1970s. His work has been exhibited at the Ixelles Museum in Belgium, in France at the Museum of Fine Arts in Nancy and the Palais des Papes in Avignon, and in Japan at retail chain Seibu’s contemporary art museum.
Pierre Courtens is a French painter of Belgian origin. In 1942 he entered the Academy of Fine Arts of Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, having as a teacher the painter Jacques Maes. He also studied monumental decorative art at Anto-Carte, took courses at the Higher Academy of the Kingdom of Belgium in Antwerp in etchings and woodcuts (Cours Broccas). He is particularly famous for the portraits he made of Antonin Artaud, whom he met in 1946.
Guido Deleu is a Belgian sculptor, creative visual artist and civil engineer whose career began at the Roeselare Art Academy. Deleu's creations in ceramics and bronze are characterised by a modern, sophisticated and balanced character. His most iconic creation is the sculpture The Visitor.
Paul Dom, born Paulus Ludovicus Carolus Dom, was a Belgian and Dutch painter and illustrator.
He studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, lived in Belgium and the Netherlands, was granted Dutch citizenship in 1936 and lived in The Hague for the rest of his life.
Paul Dom was a versatile artist. He dabbled in drawing and painting and painted portraits, cityscapes and sketches, and genre scenes. At the same time he was a political cartoonist and illustrated books. Between 1917 and 1956 Dom illustrated hundreds of books, mostly for children.
Marc Eemans was a Belgian painter, poet and art historian, one of the pioneers of constructivist abstraction.
In 1925, Eemans joined the Surrealist artists Dali and Magritte, with whom he held joint exhibitions. And soon the poet's fame eclipsed his success as a painter. In 1930, Eemans made his debut as a poet in Vergeten te worden: 10 lijnvormen, beïnvloed Door 10 woordvormen. Influenced by Symbolism, he calls his poetry "gnostic surrealism". In 1938 he publishes a collection of poems, Visioen Woli, and others.
His artistic and political stance during World War II led to a break with Magritte and others.
In addition to poetry collections, Eemans wrote essays on a variety of subjects, including modern painting and architecture.
Benjamin Katz is a contemporary German artist, photographer and actor of Belgian origin.
He is known mainly for his photographs of artistic and cultural events. From 2006-2008, he taught photography at the Academy of Fine Arts in Düsseldorf. He has participated in a number of international exhibitions.
Jean Milo, real name Emile van Gindertael, is a Belgian writer, painter and gallery owner.
The artist's work reflects his evolution from refined impressionism to pure abstraction. Influenced by French Cubism, Milo simplified forms in still lifes and interiors, but continued to paint dynamic Impressionist interiors and cityscapes. Jean Milo was director of the Belgian gallery Le Centaure, and in 1952 he helped found the group Art abstrait.
Marc Robbroeckx, known under the pseudonym Denmark, is a Belgian contemporary
Since the early seventies, this artist has been cutting, dissecting and (re)mounting books, magazines and newspapers. His archival installations are a critical response to the information overload with which we are confronted on a daily basis.
Perry Roberts is a British artist and designer living and working in Antwerp.
Roberts graduated from Bristol Polytechnic and Goldsmiths College, moving to Antwerp in 1995. His artistic practice covers a wide range of fields: abstract drawing and painting, architectural interventions in public spaces, linguo-typographic murals and furniture design. The artist approaches each type of creation with equal care, which is why all of his works are unique. In his works, Roberts consistently explores the relationship between abstraction, architecture and language.
Perry Roberts has exhibited internationally, including the United States and South America, throughout Europe, and in Australia. His work is held in many private, public and corporate collections.
Helmut Stallaerts is a Belgian artist and sculptor living and working in Lennic, Belgium.
He was educated at the Düsseldorf Academy of Fine Arts, at the Institut Imelda in Brussels, and at the Académie Saint-Luc in Brussels.
Man is a central motif in Stallerts' complex and expansive oeuvre, but this man is alienated, blurred and absent. Helmut Stallaerts also works with installations, photographs and films.
Luc Tuymans is a Belgian visual artist best known for his paintings which explore people's relationship with history and confront their ability to ignore it. World War II is a recurring theme in his work. He is a key figure of the generation of European figurative painters who gained renown at a time when many believed the medium had lost its relevance due to the new digital age.
Much of Tuymans' work deals with moral complexity, specifically the coexistence of «good» and «evil». His subjects range from major historical events such as the Holocaust to the seemingly inconsequential or banal: wallpaper, Christmas decorations or everyday objects for example.
Theofiel Agnes van de Kerckhove was a Belgian painter, graphic artist, set designer and scenographer.
He studied painting at the Antwerp Academy, where he also took classes with sculptors Dekkers, Claessens and Dupont, and joined the Rupelgouw artists' association in Boom in 1936. Van de Kerckhove worked as a stage designer at the opera in Lille, and lived for a time in Germany. Here he worked with Albert Servaes, whom he had met while at the academy. In the 1950s, Van de Kerckhove was a curator at the Rocoxhuis and one of the set designers for Belgian television.
Jef Verheyen is a Belgian and French artist, representative of the last phase of modernism, known as a painter of light and color.
Verheyen was educated at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and at NHISKA, then moved to France, took up ceramics and became interested in abstract painting. Verheyen's monochrome works are now considered part of the canon of Belgian abstract art.
