24 july 2025, Flor Linckens
Painting now: Belgian perspectives at S.M.A.K.
The exhibition 'Painting After Painting', on view at S.M.A.K. in Ghent until 2 November, maps out the vibrant and multifaceted state of contemporary painting in Belgium. This large-scale group exhibition brings together the work of 74 artists, each exploring, bending or embracing the medium in their own way. Some do so through abstraction, others with personal stories, bold colours or socially engaged statements. Without claiming to be encyclopaedic, the exhibition offers a strong and layered image of painting in Belgium today. It is not only about painting, but also considers thinking about painting.
What stands out is the freedom with which artists engage with the medium. Painting here is not isolated, but moves between visual culture, language, performance and politics. Artists play with genre, materials and expectations. Some push the boundaries of figuration, while others disappear entirely into texture and rhythm. Rather than breaking with the past to renew, many now consciously reconnect with painterly traditions. Drawing from the symbolism and visual languages of previous generations, they use those tools to reflect on the present.
The result is a body of work in which emotions, relationships and states of mind are depicted against the backdrop of a reality in which the line between fake and real, physical and virtual, continues to blur. Social media, the internet and AI also leave their traces on the canvas. The works that emerge are at once personal and critical, sensitive and conceptual. In times of ecological and societal crisis, new perspectives take shape, along with hybrid forms and contemporary mythologies.
Some artists respond to the major systems that shape our world: power, inequality, capitalism. Others start from the everyday, where the personal and political constantly overlap. It is precisely this diversity that gives the exhibition its strength.
Among the participants are several artists represented on GalleryViewer, including Hadassah Emmerich (Galerie Ron Mandos), Nokukhanya Langa (BARBÉ and Galerie van Gelder), Natasja Mabesoone (guest artist BARBÉ), Aurélie Gravas (Kristof De Clercq gallery), Veerle Beckers (Kristof De Clercq gallery), Anthony Ngoya (Galerie Caroline O’Breen), Koen van den Broek (Galerie Ron Mandos and PONTI), Anne Van Boxelaere (FRED&FERRY), Helmut Stallaerts (guest artist FRED&FERRY), Melissa Gordon (Galerie Stigter Van Doesburg), Frederik Lizen (guest artist BARBÉ), Jonas Dehnen (Pizza Gallery), Louise Delanghe (guest artist BARBÉ), Tatjana Gerhard (guest artist PLUS-ONE Gallery), Charline Tyberghein (Gallery Sofie Van de Velde), Lysandre Begijn (guest artist PLUS-ONE Gallery), Nelleke Cloosterman (PLUS-ONE Gallery), Nel Aerts (guest artist PLUS-ONE GALLERY), William Ludwig Lutgens (guest artist PLUS-ONE Gallery), Carole Vanderlinden (guest artist PLUS-ONE Gallery), Pieter Jennes (Gallery Sofie Van de Velde), Felix De Clercq (Gallery Sofie van de velde) and Bendt Eyckermans (guest artist Gallery Sofie Van de Velde).
What unites them is not a shared style or generation, but a common curiosity about what painting can be today.
Tip: throughout the exhibition, Gallery 1 of the museum is transformed into a painting studio. Visitors are invited to get hands-on, alone or together, with or without guidance. The museum thus becomes not only a place to look, but also to create.
