We’re you exposed to art while growing up?
Yes and no. Neither of my parents was really into art, especially not into contemporary art. They have raised me very openly and have always stimulated me when they noticed that I was interested in it. So I was able to go to school from a very young age on the Kunsthumaniora in Antwerp. After high school, I studied Conservation & Restoration of classical painting at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, a course that combined the theoretical with the practical and the scientific aspects of painting. Afterwards I focused on the conservation of contemporary art at the University of Ghent. A six-year college career, but I was enthusiastically supported in my development by my parents and their partners.
How did you come into contact with the art world?
Due to my education, I was mainly intertwined in a museum and academic world. This was a very dull and unsatisfying environment for my character, although my passion – the visual arts – was always the base. I set out to find a good position within the museum world, but being over-qualified (Master + 2 university degrees) this was not easily done. After being unsuccessful several times for that reason, I decided to take a job in the private sector: gallery assistant!
What was your first job in a gallery? Or did you immediately start a gallery yourself?
My first real job was gallery assistant at Annie Gentils in Antwerp. After the frustrating search in the museum world, this was a true revelation; everything I had learned in my training and internships suddenly became concrete within a commercial and dynamic subsector of contemporary art. After my first week I already knew I was in the right place.
Annie's gallery was a very nice environment for me to develop myself even more. I was immediately included in a gallery that had a very strong finger on the pulse and knew exactly what was relevant in contemporary art. After five years, the urge to tell my own story became too great, and I started Base-Alpha Gallery, my own gallery, together with my life partner Geoffrey de Beer.
From there, I made a strong commitment to contemporary art in Antwerp. Antwerp Art and the Antwerp Art Weekend, Borger and Ballroom project are a few examples of organisations that I have co-founded and/or expanded. Working together and sharing knowledge is of extreme importance these days and so it proved to be as Antwerp is once again at the top of the list of contemporary art cities.
How would you describe your gallery’s profile?
Base-Alpha Gallery started in 2007 with the idea to offer young artists of our own generation a platform, in a place that would be somewhere between a gallery and a project space, and where there would also be a lot of room for experiment and non-conventional exhibits.
Fifteen years on, the relationship with most artists has remained strong. I think it is very important that I can follow the artists closely, that I can visit them weekly, so to speak. This has created very strong ties, which means that I know the artists and their process to the bone.
Thanks to the close relationship with the artists, the programme has become very focused on Belgium and the Netherlands. Of course, a large number of international artists have also been shown over the years. Sometimes solo, sometimes in curated group exhibitions. When it comes to representing artists, a personal relationship with an artist works best for me. You tend to visit someone who lives in the heart of Sweden or somewhere in Budapest a little less often
Since September, I’ve also been running a joint gallery in Brussels together with Ida Wollens from DMW Gallery – whose gallery is also located in Borgerhout. This originated from the Ballroom project, an exhibition concept that we have been organising together for four years now. With the gallery in Brussels we try to make our collaborations a little more international. Within this programme, we look more closely at artists who already have international collaborations with other galleries, or who can be positioned in an international context. The metropolitan context makes this slightly more relevant and also easier to extend. In addition, we also specifically reserve space for very young local artists, whom we want to support in their first steps in the contemporary art world shortly after their graduation.
What do you think is the best part of being a gallerist?
Being in constant motion. Both physically and mentally, visually and in the field of knowledge. As a gallerist we meet new people, new artists, new trends all the time. Besides, today's technology allows you to get in touch with people on the other side of the world just as easily as with someone around the corner.
We are also in a constant rhythm of innovation. A new exhibition every four to six weeks in Antwerp and Brussels, which means that Base-Alpha and Ballroom Gallery together have about twenty exhibitions scheduled this season. Plus the grants and projects…
Which national / international galleries do you feel an affinity with?
There are quite a few that qualify, but they are often galleries that – just like Base-Alpha – are visually loud: L21 in Palma, Gianni Manhattan in Vienna, Sorry We're Closed in Brussels, Nino Mier in LA, Galerie Derouillon and Ruttkowski 68 in Paris.
In an ideal world, which artist would you most like to represent?
Uh, that's a tough question. Of course, there are always and everywhere fantastic artists that you would like to show in the gallery, especially because it would put on a great show. In the end, that's still what it's all about for me: making a good exhibition!
When I go somewhere in another gallery and think: 'Wow, this should have happened to me!', that makes me especially happy.
What has changed in the art world since you took your first steps?
A lot! I think I belong to the last generation of 'old school' galleries. In 2007, when we started, communication was mainly through invitations by mail and the distribution of flyers. It was already quite something if you also had a 'blog' in addition to a website. Since then, everything has been digitized at an insane pace.
Social media has an enormous impact on how we now perceive, discover, choose to display and sell art. Everything is freely accessible to everyone and certainly a platform like Instagram ensures that global trends can arise very quickly.
In the meantime, it is no longer surprising that a small gallery from Antwerp also has customers in Dubai, Los Angeles or Quebec. And the collectors are also familiar with buying works online through digital platforms such as GalleryViewer and Artsy. That’s something that was totally unthinkable back in 2007.
What / whose work do you collect yourself?
Geoffrey and I mainly collect rather impulsively. At times we have suggested that we don't collect, but if you put everything together, then we did get something together. We don't collect a theme or a technique, but everything we buy comes from a kind of shock effect at the first touch. A coup de foudre, love at first sight… and thankfully our tastes are about the same. It also ranges from paintings to drawings and sculptures. Artists we represent such as Denie Put, Nadia Naveau, Lieven Segers, Michèle Matyn, Geoffrey de Beer, Katleen Vinck, Suse Weber and Yorgos Maraziotis, but also artists from other galleries, or very young artists at the start of their careers. When I look around in the living room, it's also about a 50/50 ratio between male and female artists - that's totally unintentional, but politically correct, haha. Also, if a work ultimately does not fit into the interior, we adapt the interior to the work.
Has the pandemic changed the way you see the artworld?
The pandemic has certainly had its impact on our sector. Digitization is something that no one can allow to ignore any longer. Personally, I am convinced that it is only part of an evolution; people start browsing platforms more, dare to make more contact for making personal appointments or requesting transparent information.
On the other hand, I also notice that the art-buying public still has the need for the physical experience. Certainly at Base-Alpha exhibitions must always offer the visitor a unique experience, this has been one of the most important pillars of the course.
When I look around at my colleagues in the immediate vicinity, everyone has dealt with it differently in their own way. Fortunately, no one just kept waiting for everything to pass.
The post-corona era, which is hopefully upon us now, will also be up to entrepreneurial types, I think. Now is the time to take risks and show who you are and what you stand for.