12 may 2026, Emily Van Driessen
Antwerp Art Weekend 2026: Galleries to Keep an Eye On
From 14 to 17 May 2026, Antwerp will once again be dedicated to contemporary art during Antwerp Art Weekend. For four days, galleries, museums, project spaces and artist-run spaces open their doors for a rich programme of exhibitions, performances, screenings, talks and encounters. With 88 participating venues, the weekend offers a compact yet exceptionally lively insight into Antwerp's art scene, from established names to experimental initiatives.
A notable new addition this year is M HKA On the Spot, a temporary city-wide trail in which works from the M HKA collection appear in various Antwerp galleries and art spaces from 9 May to 30 June 2026. Several galleries on Gallery Viewer are also taking part in Antwerp Art Weekend, often presenting an additional work from the M HKA collection within their exhibition.
Francine Holley, Composition, 1956, Callewaert Vanlangendonck GalleryCallewaert Vanlangendonck — Formes (until 28 June 2026)
Part of M HKA On the Spot
Callewaert Vanlangendonck uses Antwerp Art Weekend as an opportunity to return to an important moment in Belgian art history. In 1956, the artists' group Formes was founded, emerging from Art Abstrait in 1952, a collective that played a key role in the development of post-war abstract art in Belgium. The exhibition brings together several defining voices from that period, with special attention to Francine Holley and Stella Van der Auwera, two important yet often overlooked female artists within post-war abstraction.
Currently Unavailable, Coppejans GalleryCoppejans Gallery in collaboration with Gert Junes — Currently Unavailable
Until 28 June 2026
Part of M HKA On the Spot
For Currently Unavailable, gallerists Stijn Coppejans and Gert Junes selected six iconic works that helped shape art history. The only problem: those works are currently unavailable, as they are housed in major international museum collections. The exhibition therefore opts for "the next best thing": a presentation that could not have existed without Duchamp, Klein, Schwitters, Warhol, Beuys and Rauschenberg, but in which other artists take their place. Featuring works by, among others, Robert Filliou, Wim Nival, Idris Sevenans, Ilse Pierard, Alexandra Phillips and Guillaume Bijl.
Eva Steynen Gallery — Marginal Benefits by Johannes Ulrich KubiakEva Steynen Gallery — Marginal Benefits by Johannes Ulrich Kubiak
Until 20 June 2026
Part of M HKA On the Spot
During Antwerp Art Weekend, Johannes Ulrich Kubiak opens his third solo exhibition at Eva Steynen Gallery. Marginal Benefits presents a new series of large-scale paintings on canvas and smaller works on paper, in which forms and structures slowly unfold through colour, rhythm and time. For this exhibition, Kubiak extends his painterly research into the architectural context of the gallery. Subtle spatial interventions ensure that the works do not merely exist on the wall, but enter into an active dialogue with the space, the viewer's gaze and their movement through the exhibition.
Winnie Claessens, southern & northern hemisphere, 2026, Fred&FerryFRED&FERRY — All Tomorrow's Parties by Winnie Claessens
Until 6 June 2026
Part of M HKA On the Spot
In her solo exhibition All Tomorrow's Parties, Winnie Claessens starts from a world in which different visions of the future overlap. The title refers to William Gibson's novel of the same name and evokes an atmosphere of transitional zones, where nothing is definitively fixed. Claessens moves between modernist utopias, traditional techniques and possible dystopias, without judgement but with sharp curiosity. Her installations are strongly narrative and reveal her background in scenography as well as her fascination with film.
Marc Schepers, Dérive, 2026, ShoobilShoobil — Dreamtime Dreaming by Marc Schepers
Until 31 May 2026
Part of M HKA On the Spot
At Shoobil, Marc Schepers presents the solo exhibition Dreamtime Dreaming, in which imagination, dreams and association take centre stage. Dreams are approached as a complex interplay of images, desires and memories, in which space and time converge. Schepers disrupts fixed viewing habits and allows the image to emerge as an open field of fleeting connections. His work invites viewers to look beyond the immediate, towards what unfolds between perception, memory and imagination.
Anne Silverstrand Forest, Mandy Vigilante, 2026, NQ GalleryNQ Gallery — They've Got Disaster on Their Mind by Anne Silverstrand Forest and Of Naive America: Clay and Logbook by Samuel Sarmiento (until 21 June 2026)
During Antwerp Art Weekend, NQ Gallery presents two ongoing exhibitions. In They've Got Disaster on Their Mind, Anne Silverstrand Forest explores a world in which the boundaries between power and powerlessness, good and evil, become increasingly visible. Hidden structures rise to the surface and a sense of an approaching tipping point becomes more insistent.
Alongside this, Samuel Sarmiento presents Of Naive America: Clay and Logbook, a body of work in which painting, drawing and ceramics come together. Drawing on Caribbean oral traditions, he explores how stories, history, identity, migration and systems of meaning take shape in images and objects.
Noah Latif Lamp, Chemtrails, Tommy SimoensTommy Simoens — Chemtrails by Noah Latif Lamp
Until 19 June 2026
Two years after his exhibition MISSING at Tommy Simoens Gallery, Noah Latif Lamp returns with Chemtrails on Wednesday 13 May 2026, a new series of paintings that emerged after a stay between the former Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. This displacement forms the starting point for a broader reflection on a world increasingly shaped by crisis, control and the aftermath of permanent states of emergency. In Lamp's work, even the sky loses its neutrality: airplane trails become charged signs onto which fear, ideology and distrust are projected. Chemtrails shows how everyday images can become unstable, and how painting can make that shift tangible.
