Belgian galleries M HKA, SMAK and FOMU announce new shows

M HKA, SMAK and FOMU, three major Belgian art galleries, are separately launching three exhibitions featuring world-renowned artists. The Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp (M HKA) present an exhibition by Joseph Beuys, a German artist without an artistic specialism whose work is conceptually based on humanism, social philosophy and anti-modernism. Beuys’ exhibition, which is his first in Belgium since the 1980s, is entitled Greetings from the Eurasian and it is curated by Nav Haq. It reflects on Beuys’ experiences in Antwerp during the 1960s and ‘70s and explores his continued relevance to a new generation of art enthusiasts.

Joseph Beuys and Henning Christiansen, Eurasienstab, 1968

Joseph Beuys, Honigpumpe am Arbeitsplatz, 1977

The Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art (SMAK) in Ghent hosts an exhibition of the work of Gerhard Richter, who is widely regarded as one of the most important contemporary artists of our time. Richter is a German visual artist who is considered to have re-invented painting in the post-war era. The exhibition, About Painting, is organised in honour of Richter’s 85th birthday and centres around his sculptural works 4 Panes of Glass (1967) and 7 Panes of Glass (2013). The exhibition was co-produced with the Kunstmuseum Bonn.

Gerhard Richter, Fenstergitter, 1968

Gerhard Richter, 4 Panes of Glass

The Fotomuseum (FOMU) in Antwerp are displaying the photographs of Ai Weiwei, the famous contemporary Chinese artist, and again one of the most significant artists working today, who is especially known for his use of art to criticise human rights violations and state abuse of power, in his first ever solo exhibition in Belgium. The exhibition, Mirror, is a selection of Weiwei’s photographs from the 1990s to the present, including some that express his political sentiments.

Ai Weiwei – Mirror

by Allie Nawrat 

Joseph Beuys’ exhibition, Greetings from the Eurasian, is on at M HKA in Antwerp from October 13 until January 21 2018

Gerhard Richter’s exhibition, About Painting, is on at SMAK in Ghent from October 21 until February 18, 2018

Ai Weiwei’s exhibition, Mirror, is on at FOMU from October 27 until February 18, 2018