Antwerp Art Scene: Galleries & Artists To Keep An Eye On
Antwerp's vibrant art scene has my heart. Over the weekend, I discovered some great new art for you with a monastery, military tents, Italian houses, and an artist running in circles.
Art Antwerp
I’ve been to Art Antwerp for the first time (shout out to Martin for the invite!) and I can tell you the vibes were great. I could easily see everything in three hours, no hurry, no rush. The third edition had 72 galleries from 12 countries participating, most from the Benelux region. I noticed a shift towards photorealism and away from chunky impasto painting, we’ll have to see whether that’s an ongoing trend. My favorite booths were those of Rossi Contemporary (Brussels), Stigter Van Doesburg (Amsterdam), Pedrami Gallery (Antwerp), Galerie DYS (Brussels), and Valerius Gallery (Luxemburg).
Art Antwerp, December 14 - 17, 2023 at Expo Antwerp
Jo Dennis: Town Hall Disco
The family of Jo Dennis (Gen X, Scottish) knows how to serve. Her dad in the British Armed Forces, Jo in the arts. Her first show in Europe, Town Hall Disco, presents painted assemblages of military tents and residue materials. She makes the camouflage tent almost invisible behind the paint. Her peach, cherry, pink, and teal color palette reminds me of the New Year’s Eve night sky filled with the smoke of burnt fireworks.
Jo’s approach to fabric recalls a bunch of different artists. The glossy texture comes close to that of Katharina Grosse’s (Baby Boomer, German) shimmering textile installations. The new combinations of residue and leftover material make me think of Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008, American). The way she drips paint, crumps and wraps the fabric on canvas is similar to young Christo (1935-2020, Bulgarian): As a student in Socialist Bulgaria, he used to cover up the unaesthetic spots along the Orient Express Route and later became famous for wrapping everything from objects to entire landscapes.
Newchild, until January 25, 2024, Geuzenstraat 16, 2000 Antwerp
Ewerdt Hilgemann & Jeroen Jongeleen: Rolling Cube
Two artists do their own version of Sisyphus work at Rolling Cube. Jeroen (Baby Boomer, Dutch) creates video installations featuring panoramic overhead shots. He uses a string to walk out perfectly formed circles in former military landscapes. Trenches to wheatfields, borders to forests. A neat circle is such an unnatural shape compared to the historically altered landscapes.
Ewerdt (*1938, German) sculpts perfectly polished metal cubes only to implode them. There’s an 80’s video documentary of him carving an enormous chunk of expensive Carrara marble into a smooth cube. After weeks of tedious work, he brought the cube to a stone quarry in Carrara just to drop it into the depth. It has changed its shape through the fall but still stayed intact. The artists show how violence changes things, landscapes, and people.
Coppejans Gallery, until February 18, 2024, Falconplein 17-19, 2000 Antwerp
Pjeroo Roobjee & Jan Decleir
De Zwarte Panter (Wakanda forever fr) is a legendary gallery in Antwerp located in a former monastery and the oldest in Belgium. Currently, there are two separate shows on Pjero and Jan (both Baby Boomer, Belgian). Strong fever dream energy in both cases.
Pjeroo’s portraits are giving psychedelic expressionist brush stroke orgy while Jan’s large-scale works give a Jörg Immendorf (1945-2007, German) type beat twist to the Pink Panther and Popeye in a warzone. I’m as confused as you are. I don’t know what else to say, the place is dope.
De Zwarte Panter, until January 28, 2024, Hoogstraat 70-72-74, 2000 Antwerp
winter
A group show that caught my eye at vcrb gallery unites seven artists working with painting and sculpture. I don’t know what they have in common. I also have no clue why the show’s title is winter. While I wasn’t very impressed by Natasja Bennink’s (Gen X, Dutch) chunky bronze figurines or Nadine Callebaut’s (Baby Boomer, Belgian) soft hazy portraits, I sure enjoy Katrin Brause’s (Gen X, German) paintings of walls in Italy. These large canvases first look like abstract chunky patches of beige, brown, and white paint. Graffiti and cropped windows reveal her mastery of painting crumbling plaster.
Two other favorites are Jimbo Lateef and Christian Ikechukwu (both Gen Z, Nigerian). Jimbo divides his small red portraits into a neatly drawn half and a field of independent separate brush strokes. Christian portrays individuals as black silhouettes against bright surroundings adding photographs to accentuate personal details like clothes or lips. The collaging of body parts reminds me a lot of Anys Reimann (Baby Boomer, German).
vcrb gallery, until January 28, 2024, De Burburestraat 14, 2000 Antwerp
Next week, we’re finishing 2023 with a recap of my favorite art this year. Subscribe to not miss out!
It’s almost 2024, can you believe it? I wish all my distinguished ladies and gentlemen happy holidays. I’d appreciate you supporting my silly lil reviews with some Christmas love, a like, a comment, or a share :)
Merry Chrysler!
Jennifer
The Gen Z Art Critic