BRUSSELS .- Art Brussels is delighted to announce the content of its 39th edition. With 152 participating galleries from 32 countries, the fair will feature works from established and emerging artists from around the world, providing a platform for collectors, curators, and art enthusiasts to discover - and rediscover - new and exciting artists. The fair’s diverse, rich programme will bring together 800 artists, showcasing the best of the contemporary gallery scene and proving that Art Brussels remains as forward- looking and innovative as ever. The Preview and Vernissage: Thursday 20 April 2023, and event will be Friday 21 – Sunday 23 April 2023.
Art Brussels: One fair, four different sections
The participating galleries are divided into four different sections according to the artists exhibited: PRIME (for mid-career and established artists), DISCOVERY (emerging artists), REDISCOVERY (artists whose works from the 20th Century deserve to be placed in the spotlight again) and SOLO (solo artist presentations).
SOLO
The fair continues to show its dedication to curated displays by hosting a high number of SOLO presentations, with 29 galleries highlighting the work of individual artists. The best SOLO presentation will be awarded the SOLO Prize, with the winning artist receiving €10,000.
Full list of SOLO projects: Angel Vergara Axel Vervoordt Gallery |Tessa Perutz Baronian | Korakrit Arunanondchai CLEARING | Marinella Senatore Ceysson & Bénétière | Regine Schumann Dep Art Gallery | Thilo Heinzmann dépendance | Marria Pratts Everyday Gallery | Noé Sendas Galeria Presença | Ryan Wilde Galerie Julien Cadet | Jérémie Cosimi Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire | WonderBuhle Galerie Ron Mandos | Dirk Van Saene Gallery Sofie Van de Velde & PLUS-ONE Gallery | Willehad Eilers Harlan Levey Projects | Catherine Repko Huxley-Parlour | Navid Nuur Jahn und Jahn | Léonard Pongo Kristof De Clercq gallery | Marcos Avila Forero LMNO | Gavin Turk MARUANI MERCIER | Thu Van Tran Meessen De Clercq | Giangiacomo Rossetti Mendes Wood DM | Ana Karkar Nosbaum Reding | Rodrigo Hernández P420 | Ria Verhaeghe Richard Saltoun Gallery | Aneta Kajzer Semiose | Kate Gottgens SMAC Gallery | Machteld Rullens Sorry We're Closed | Jonny Niesche The Hole | Jim Dine TEMPLON | Nathanaëlle Herbelin Xavier Hufkens.
DISCOVERY: the best emerging talent
Committed to promoting the best young and emerging talent in the contemporary art world, the fair’s dedicated DISCOVERY section showcases works about hot topics such as gender, identity and climate change. There will be a remarkable number of sculptural works to see as well. Amongst the exhibiting artists are: Nils Alix-Tabeling and Nicola Martini with Clima Gallery (Milan) & Piktogram (Warsaw); Andreea Anghel and Gili Mocanu with SUPRAINFINIT (Bucharest); Olivia Bax and Stefano Perrone with RIBOT (Milan); Melanie Bonajo with AKINCI (Amsterdam); Flaviu Cacoveanu and Guillaume Valenti with Parliament (Paris); Daisy Collingridge and Angelina May Davis with Division of Labour / TJ Boulting (London); Socrates Fatouros with Eins (Limassol); Indriķis Ģelzis with ASHES/ASHES (New York); Ali Salazar with Ginsberg Galeria (Lima, Madrid); Selma Selman with KUK GALLERY (Cologne). The best DISCOVERY presentation will be awarded with the DISCOVERY Prize, supported by Moleskine. A cheque of €5,000 will go to the winning gallery.
REDISCOVERY: a record number of presentations
An expanded REDISCOVERY section (12 galleries vs 7 in 2022) will enable visitors to uncover hidden gems by artists from an older generation or deceased. The focus is on works are created between 1945-2000 by artists that have been unduly underrepresented or overlooked. The section has a dedicated area on the floor plan. This year, the section includes presentations of works by Vincentiu Grigorescu with 418 Gallery (Munich, Cetate); Chryssa & Sibylle Ruppert with Blue Velvet Projects (Zürich); Christian Herdeg with galerie lange + pult (Zurich, Auvernier); Jules Olitski with QG Gallery (Knokke); Bob Bonies with Galerie Ramakers (The Hague); and TAPTA with Maurice Verbaet Gallery (Knokke).
PRIME: artists exhibiting at museums and institutions
The fair will highlight artists who will be exhibiting concurrently at key institutions around the world including: David Claerbout at Taipei Fine Arts Museum (Taipei) and Adam Pendleton at Mumok (Viena) (Pedro Cera, Lisbon); Michel François (Xavier Hufkens, Brussels) at Bozar (Brussels); Vincentiu Grigorescu (418 Gallery, Munich, Cetate) at the Contemporary Art Museum Bucharest (MNAC); Rodrigo Hernández (P420, Bologna) at P/////AKT (Amsterdam); Eva Jospin (Galerie Suzanne Tarasieve, Paris) at Fondation Thalie (Brussels); Mehdi-Georges Lahlou (TRANSIT, Mechelen) at la CENTRALE (Brussels); Marina Pinsky (CLEARING, New York, Brussels, Los Angeles) at La Loge (Brussels); Umar Rashid (Almine Rech, Paris, Brussels, New York, London, Shanghai) at MoMA PS1 (New York); Giangiacomo Rossetti (Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo, Brussels, New York) at Power station (Dallas); Oscar Tuazon at Kunst Museum Winterthur and Haegue Yang at SMAK (Ghent) (dépendance, Brussels); Angel Vergara (Axel Vervoordt, Antwerp, Hong Kong) at MACs Grand- Hornu (Mons).
Around the fair: Mediterranean galleries
In 2023 the fair will welcome a record number of galleries from Southern Europe with
26 galleries (17% of all participants versus 14% in 2022) coming from the Mediterranean. Amongst them, 11 galleries from Italy (10 A.M. ART, Clima Gallery, Dep Art Gallery, Eduardo Secci, Il Ponte, Lia Rumma, Martina Simeti, MONITOR, P420, RIBOT, Thomas Brambilla); 8 galleries from Spain (1 MIRA MADRID, ADN Galeria, Galeria Alegria, Galeria Joan Prats, Ginsberg Galerie, House of Chappaz, Luis Adelantado Gallery, Noguerasblanchard), 6 from Portugal (Galeria Bruno Múrias, Galeria Filomena Soares, Galeria Foco, Galeria Presença, GALERIA VERA CORTÊS, Pedro Cera) and 1 from Cyprus (Eins Gallery) and 1 from Greece (Bernier/Eliades Gallery).
Some of Art Brussels 2023 selected galleries in numbers:
152 galleries divided in 3 sections and 1 sub-section:
• 34 in DISCOVERY
• 99 in PRIME
• 12 in REDISCOVERY
• 29 SOLO presentations Of the 152 participating galleries,
• 26% are from Belgium
• 55% are from Europe (outside of Belgium)
• 19% are from the rest of the world (from these, 9% from USA & 4% from Asia)
Other artist initiatives and projects at the fair:
The KickCancer Collection
Art Brussels is delighted introduce a new charity initiative for its 39th edition: The KickCancer Collection. The KickCancer Collection will present a monumental wall of postcard-sized artworks at the fair. A unique opportunity to own original artworks by some of today’s leading artists, all works will be sold at a flat rate of €400 to benefit the Belgian KickCancer Foundation, which finances research on children’s cancer and empowers patients and their families. All postcards are displayed anonymously (they are signed on the reverse) with the name of the artist only be revealed after the purchase of the artwork.
Participating galleries include: Almine Rech, Ballon Rouge, Baronian, Bernier/Eliades, Ceysson & Bénétière, dépendance, Lelong & Co., Gladstone, Harlan Levey Projects, Nagel Draxler, Nino Mier, Xavier Hufkens and Zeno X.
Participating artists include: Anastasia Bay, Lionel Estève, Joëlle Dubois, Michel François, Bertrand Lavier, Nicolas Lamas, Aurélie Pétrel, Benoît Platéus, Maarten Vanden Eynde, Jan Voss, Sophie Whettnall, Yves Zurstrassen.
The Violet Wallpaper by Laurie Charles – with Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, curated by Zeynep Kubat
For 2023 Art Brussels presents The Violet Wallpaper by Laurie Charles. Brussels- based artist Charles (*1987, Belgium) creates speculative narratives by interweaving stories and histories, drawing on fiction, folklore, humanities and science. Rewriting the history of illness and care from a female perspective to create this installation, she draws deeply from her own experience with autoimmune disease. Societies minimise, generalise or patronise sick bodies, female bodies, coloured bodies, disabled bodies, traumatised bodies, fat bodies, poor bodies. The domestic labour conditions of these bodies are worsening in a post-covid context, influenced by wars and an economic recession. Laurie connects politics of labour with politics of the body through her installation, which is inspired by the short story The Yellow Wallpaper (1892) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
Ruinart’s Carte Blanche 2023 with Eva Jospin
This year, Maison Ruinart invited the French artist Eva Jospin to be part of for its Carte Blanche program. She has been inspired by the Champagne region and the history of Ruinart to create a mineral and plant landscape. Inspired by references to the Maison’s culture and the handing-down of knowledge intricately linked to the terroir, Eva Jospin’s installation draws on temporal and geological strata. The interlacing layers guide us as we meander through the landscape, wide-eyed. Made primarily from cardboard, the artist’s favourite material, this realm reminds us that creativity can transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. Celebrating patient, repeated gestures, but also the element of mystery within each piece of art, her work echoes the making of champagne, which elevates the grape through an alchemy of fermentation and unique know-how. Open to multiple interpretations, Eva Jospin’s installation subtly evokes a promenade through the Champagne region through the ages.
BeCraft
BeCraft is a collective of Belgian artists who are supported, promoted, trained and educated in Belgium and globally as part a continuous exchange between the Wallonia-Brussels Federation and the international world. Since 1981, BeCraft has been the only representative in the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles for contemporary applied Arts.
Artsy Online Viewing Room from 20 till 27 April 2023
The fair has renewed its partnership with Artsy, the largest global online marketplace for buying, selling and discovering art by leading artists. As Art Brussels’ online Marketplace Partner, Artsy will provide a unique opportunity for exhibiting galleries to promote their virtual booths showcasing their artists’ artworks to Artsy’s global audience. Collectors can experience Art Brussels on Artsy to discover artists, save favourite works, view works on their home walls using Artsy's AR mobile tool and directly purchase work from galleries at the click of a button.
Artsy is the largest global online marketplace for discovering, buying, and selling fine art by leading artists. Artsy connects 4,000+ galleries, auction houses, art fairs, and institutions from 100+ countries with more than 2 million global art collectors and art lovers across 190+ countries. Artsy makes purchasing art welcoming, transparent and low-friction with industry-leading technology that connects supply and demand safely and securely at a global scale. Launched in 2012, Artsy is headquartered in New York City with offices in London, Berlin, and Hong Kong.
