All tagged art brussels

Vojtěch Kovařík Portrays a Forlorn Hero

Vojtěch Kovařík Portrays a Forlorn Hero

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Reviews

Vojtěch Kovařík’s exhibition ‘The Labours of Hercules’ at Mendes Wood DM tells the story of one of art history’s most frequently illustrated iconographical subjects. Although the title alludes to the 12 tasks carried out by the classical hero Hercules as penitence for having killed his wife and children – after his stepmother, Hera, turned him temporarily insane – only one of the 12 paintings on display directly references its subject (Hercules Dips his Arrows in the Hydra’s Poisonous Black Blood, all works 2023). In marked contrast to the exalted attitudes of most representations of the scene, Kovařík does not depict Hercules triumphantly in medias res. Rather, the viewer is treated to a quiet, even melancholic portrayal. The massive, marble-white figure of Hercules is almost too big to be contained within the picture frame, and there is a look of forlorn concentration on the hero’s face.


At Art Brussels 2023, Emerging Artists and Rediscovered Masters Shine

At Art Brussels 2023, Emerging Artists and Rediscovered Masters Shine

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Art Market, Reviews

Art Brussels is a fair much like the city it occupies. Perhaps not as iconic or flashy as Paris, New York, or London, Brussels is, nonetheless, a plucky, punchy European capital that refuses to be passed over or cede its cultural centrality to the European art world.

Two years after the pandemic forced the 55-year-old fair to adopt a clumsy hybrid of online sales and a city-wide gallery crawl, Art Brussels has triumphantly returned to Brussels Expo, also known as the Palace of Exhibitions—an imposing, almost Stalinist, Art Deco tower perched upon the Heysel Plateau, on the northern outskirts of the city. From its sprawling terraced emmarchement, visitors on the doorstep of the fair can look back upon a sweeping vista of the verdant surrounding park with the city’s iconic Atomium looming large in the distance.

The fact that this impressive setting is quickly put out of a visitor’s mind is a testament to the quality and vitality of the works on display inside. This year’s edition presents 152 galleries from 32 countries with more than 800 artists on display. Booths are divided into five unequally sized sections: Prime, Solo, Discovery, Rediscovery, and Artistic Project.

The 7 Best Booths at Art Antwerp 2021

The 7 Best Booths at Art Antwerp 2021

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Reviews, Art Market

The inaugural edition of Art Antwerp opened on Thursday to a modest but determined crowd of collectors and art professionals who filled the halls of the Antwerp Expo event center, on the Flemish city’s southside. A new art fair on the European circuit, Art Antwerp is an extension of Art Brussels, one of Europe’s longest running and most prominent fairs.

The fair features 59 galleries, the vast majority of which are Belgian, with the rest filled out by the bordering countries of France, Germany, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, with the exception of one Austrian gallery. Yet despite its size and parochiality, Art Antwerp demonstrated that fairs don’t need sprawling global monoliths to pack a powerful punch. Sometimes, less is more. Indeed, the vast majority of the participating galleries appeared to have brought their A game, with a particularly strong showing of young figurative painters.