Ten Things To Shout About At Art Brussels 2023 – Paul Carter Robinson
22 April 2023 • Share —
One of the most rewarding things I get to do as an art journalist is to run around global art fairs and choose my favourite art works. This year, Art Brussels had plenty to shout about from Gerhard Richter to less established and emerging artists.
Founded in 1968, Art Brussels is one of the best-known contemporary art fairs in Europe, a must-see in the international art calendar. Art Brussels represents a unique opportunity to discover the richness of the artistic and cultural scene of the European capital. It attracts a growing number of collectors, gallerists, curators, art professionals and art lovers from around the world. Every year in April, the fair welcomes around 25,000 visitors. Since 2016, Art Brussels had been held in the emblematic Tour & Taxis building, in the heart of Brussels. This year, the fair moved back to the Brussels Expo site where the fair was held in Halls 5 and 6, Art Deco icon built for the 1935 Brussels International Exposition.
Ed Ruscha ‘That Was Then This Is Now’ 1989. The exhibition in the Stibbe Lounge showed a selection of works from the private collection of the Vanmoerkerke family and has been carefully chosen to honour the life of entrepreneur, collector, friend, husband and father, the late Mark Vanmoerkerke. The exhibition features works by the following artists: Alighiero Boetti, Maurizio Cattelan, Sam Durant, Lucio Fontana, Robert Longo, Léo Marfurt, Gerhard Richter, Ed Ruscha, Cindy Sherman, Wolfgang TillmansGerhard Richter Abstrakte Bild 1979 from the private collection of the Vanmoerkerke family – Gerhard Richter (German: born 9 February 1932) is a German visual artist. Richter has produced abstract as well as photorealistic paintings, and also photographs and glass pieces. He is widely regarded as one of the most important living contemporary German artists.Hans Op De Beeck – Galerie Ron Mandos Hans Op de Beeck (BE) produces large installations, sculptures, films, drawings, paintings, photographs and texts. His work is a reflection on our complex society and the universal questions of meaning and mortality that resonate within it. He regards man as a being who stages the world around him in a tragi-comic way. Above all, Op de Beeck is keen to stimulate the viewers’ senses, and invite them to really experience the image. He seeks to create a form of visual fiction that delivers a moment of wonder and silence.Melanie Bonajo Akinci Discovery – Melanie Bonajo (they/them) is a queer, non-binary, Dutch artist, filmmaker, feminist, sexological bodyworker, somatic sex coach and educator, cuddle workshop facilitator and animal rights activist. Through their videos, performances, photographs and installations, Mel examines current conundrums of co-existence in a crippling capitalistic systems, and address themes of eroding intimacy and isolation in an increasingly sterile, technological world.Magnus Frederik Clausen – Claas Reiss: “I recently started to step back from the act of painting and observe others paint my pictures. Becoming the audience of my work provides me with a different kind of space to observe painting during its execution. I find myself in a position where I watch and criticise my paintings while they are taking shape – something I am not able to do when I have the brush in my hand.” Colin Penno – Berthold Potts Deconstructed Motherwell? – Colin Penno, German, born 1980, lives and works in Essen, Germany. Studied at Folkwang Essen (2003-2010, diploma in photography) & Academy Düsseldorf, Germany (2010-2015, master class).Gavin Turk – Kerze Solo Exhibition – View works. Gavin Turk attended the Royal College of Art in London. In his 1991 MA exhibition, he presented a whitewashed studio space containing a single blue heritage plaque commemorating his presence. Though refused a degree, his subsequent notoriety attracted the attention of Charles Saatchi and he became part of a group known as the ‘Young British Artists’ (YBAs). Public collections include Tate, London; Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), London; and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York.Eileen Cohen Sussholz Pedrami Gallery Antwerp – Eileen Cohen Sussholz’s ceramic sculptures take the form of assemblages of objects that are individually cast in moulds that she makes from things that populates our cultural landscape. Whether plucked from the pedestal of art history or pilfered from the basement junk heap, her work acknowledges that we inhabit and engage with a world of objects.Jim Dine – Templon – Jim Dine (born June 16, 1935) is an American artist whose œuvre extends over sixty years. Dine’s work includes painting, drawing, printmaking (in many forms including lithographs, etchings, gravure, intaglio, woodcuts, letterpress and linocuts), sculpture and photography; his early works encompassed assemblage and happenings, while in recent years his poetry output, both in publications and readings, has increased.Maurizio Cattelan Tourists 1997 – Stibbe – Maurizio Cattelan (born 21 September 1960) is an Italian visual artist. Known primarily for his hyperrealistic sculptures and installations, Cattelan’s practice also includes curating and publishing. His satirical approach to art has resulted in him being frequently labelled as a joker or prankster of the art world. Self-taught as an artist, Cattelan has exhibited internationally in museums and Biennials.
