Category Archives: Brussels

2016 HIGHLIGHTS

With 2016 coming to a close, we look back at the highlights of the year.
Click on the titles to view more information.

Banksy – Les Miserables (London)

Banksy - London 2016

Venturing Beyond @ Somerset House (London)

Venturing Beyond at Somerset House

Space Invader – Wave 18 in London

London Invasion 2016 - Wave 18

Subcultures @ Espace Croix Baragnon (Toulouse)

Subcultures - Toulouse

Paul Insect – It’s only a Dream (London)

Paul Insect - It's only a dream

 Jardin Rouge for Marrakech Biennale 2016

Poes & Jo Ber Mural - The Game of Life

Hisham Echafaki @ Donmar Warehouse Theatre (London)

Sea Ballet

Yayoi Kusama @ Victoria Miro (London)

Yayoi Kusama

Future Iz Past  <++ (Bordeaux)

<++ Future Iz Past

Jeff Koons – Now (London)

Jeff Koons NOW

Rose Beton Festival (Toulouse)

Tilt - Voyage Retour

dran-Tiens (Brussels)

dran 'Tiens'

Conor Harrington – Watch Your Palace Fall (London)

Conor Harrington - Watch Your Palace Fall

MIMA City Lights (Brussels)

MIMA - Parra

Save Yourselves (London)

Save Yourselves

Studio Visit Remi Rough 

Remi Rough - Studio Visit

No Commission (London)

NO COMMISSION LONDON

Gavin Turk (London)

Gavin Turk - Newport Street Gallery

Creve Hivernale 016 (Toulouse)

Creve Hivernale - Toulouse

Thank you for inspiring us throughout the year
Best Wishes for the year to come!

Advertisement

MIMA City Lights with Faile

MIMA - Faile

For the exhibition ‘City Lights’ at the MIMA Museum in Brussels, the artistic duo Faile have covered the internal walls of the museum with their  stencils similarly like they have been doing on the New York streets for the past 15 years.

MIMA - Faile

The lavatories adorn their signature narrative imagery  and characters.

MIMA - FaileMIMA - Faile   MIMA - Faile  MIMA - FaileMIMA - Faile     MIMA - Faile

Initially shown in the center of Times Square last autumn, a huge wooden sculptural installation with a spinning prayer wheel looks like a temple with consumerism slogans. The public eagerly interact with the installation and play with the wheel.

MIMA - FaileMIMA - Faile    MIMA - Faile

The adjacent walls feature two panels with juxtaposed imagery engraved in wood.

MIMA - FaileMIMA - Faile

Wandering on the nearby streets of the museum, we were pleased to stumble upon a few stencils by the infamous artistic duo.

Faile - Brussels

View the full set of pics here

Stay tuned for the rest of our coverage of ‘City Lights’ with Maya Hayuk.

MIMA Museum – City Lights
Until 31 December 2016
Brussels

MIMA ‘ City Lights’ with MOMO

MIMA - MOMO

We continue our visit of the new Millennium Iconoclast Museum of Art (MIMA) in Brussels ( see Swoon here). The permanent collection over two floors features works by Mobstr, Parra, Barry McGee, Horfee, Huskmitvan to name a few.

MIMA - ParraMobstr
Horfee

For the exhibition ‘City Lights’ presented by Alice Gallery,  US artist  MOMO has created a bespoke installation, where he questions the space and lines through geometric patterns and sculptures. Visitors are invited to navigate through the installation to get different perspectives and surprises like drawings hidden behind a fake wall.

MIMA - MOMOMIMA - MOMOMIMA - MOMOMIMA - MOMO

View the full set of pics here

Stay tuned for the rest of our coverage of City Lights with Faile and Maya Hayuk.

MIMA Museum – City Lights
Until 31 December 2016
Brussels

MIMA ‘City Lights’ with Swoon

MIMA - Swoon

Inaugurating the new Millennium Iconoclast Museum of Art (MIMA) in Brussels, created by Florence and Michel Delaunoit, Alice van den Abeele, and Raphaël Cruyt, four pillars of the New York Street Art scene, MOMO, Swoon, Faile, and Maya Hayuk are showing their unique street practice.

We start off with a look at Swoon’s intricate hand-cut paper patterns and wheat-pasted figures. A large portrait of ‘Ice Queen‘ featuring Olivia Katz (which was first seen at the MOCA in 2011) adorn the outside wall of the museum.

MIMA - SwoonMIMA - Swoon     MIMA - Swoon

In the basement Swoon created an immersive installation looking like a maze with her signature characters featuring family and friends she met through her various encounters: from a portrait of her mum surrounded by buddhist protectors ‘Dharmapalas’, Walki, a young boy from Haiti who benefited from the Konbit Shelter Project, George, an inmate from Philadelphia who worked with Swoon, to her latest portrait of Sonya.

MIMA - SwoonMIMA - Swoon MIMA - Swoon    MIMA - SwoonMIMA - Swoon    MIMA - Swoon  MIMA - Swoon     MIMA - Swoon     MIMA - Swoon
MIMA - Swoon    MIMA - Swoon            MIMA - SwoonMIMA - Swoon  MIMA - Swoon   MIMA - SwoonMIMA - Swoon MIMA - Swoon

View the full set of pics here

Stay tuned for the rest of our coverage of City Lights with Faile, Momo and Maya Hayuk.

MIMA Museum – City Lights
Until 31 December 2016
Brussels

Brussels: dran ‘Tiens’ @ Adda Gallery

dran 'Tiens'

Six years after his last major solo show at POW, French artist dran comes back to the scene with a comprehensive solo exhibition ‘Tiens’ curated by Adda Gallery in Brussels.

‘Tiens’ presents an ‘ABCD’aire’, an A to Z series of canvases illustrating anecdotes, popular expressions and tales,as well as drawings, earlier artworks on cardboard ,  hand finished prints and a new book. We can see the evolution of dran’s mood from the past two years throughout his paintings.

In the entrance large monochrome free-hand paintings remind us of his installation at Palais de Tokyo in 2014. A wink to his 2015 London performance ‘Public Execution’ (covered) is shown with the maid sweeping all the questions, and ‘Execution‘ featuring a painter being shot by red dots.

dran 'Tiens'    dran 'Tiens'
Dran - Public Execution Show  dran 'Tiens'  dran 'Tiens'
London 2015                       Brussels 2016

Apart from a few grey tones canvasses,  dran sets the tone with ‘Tiens’ featuring a depressed arlequin sitting down approached by a little girl who gives him a coloured card to inspire him and cheer him up.

The ABCd’Air series starts with a breadth of fresh air (bol d’air), with a cloud having breakfast. Many of the depicted characters are happy, screaming with joy and open arms in the air from ‘aaaa‘, a little boy standing on his bed,  a cry from the heart, a little girl smiling under a shower of coloured paint to the series of 88 hand finished prints.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Topics include the everyday life: addiction to social media, education, house hunting, environment issues with ‘La Semeuse’, French traditional symbol, seen polluting by throwing away batteries, love (X croisement), trust (Pont)…

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Animals have anthropomorphic features. A lion puts some make up, lipstick and glitter to disguise as a zebra. ‘Faire le zebre’ means ‘fool around / put up a show’. The world is upside down, when a bear contemplates his profits selling his own skin, while a rabbit is taking revenge on hunters on the run.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

In ‘Urgent’ a grim reaper is laughing out loud (Mort de rire) while ‘Graffiti’  plays on the art of buffing and the various shades of grey. ‘Toile’ may come as a surprise but it is a witty trompe l’oeil featuring the back of a canvas with the signature of Elmyr, an hommage to the infamous forger Elmyr de Hory, who forged over 1000 canvasses from Matisse to Picasso and are exhibited in museums worldwide and still not identified. While Elmyr was imprisoned and committed suicide in 1976, no one knows his real painting style.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

A second room presents earlier works, drawings, artworks on cardboard as well as 88 hand finished prints. The Thinker is wrapped with fragile tape.  A large scale canvas ‘Ciao’ featuring a mouse leaving a big boat sounds premonitory of the current Brexit situation.  Last but not least, energetic characters like a little ballerina full of colours thank the audience.

View the full set of pics here

dran ‘Tiens’
Until 10 July 2016
ADDA Gallery
51 Rue de la Madeleine
Bruxelles