NIEUWS DEELNEMERS
29/04/2026
Almine Rech - Ha Chong-Hyun’s sixth solo exhibition
Almine Rech Brussels is pleased to present Ha Chong-Hyun’s sixth solo exhibition with the gallery, on view from April 22 to June 27, 2026.
Abstraction and figuration are foundational terms in the context of modern and contemporary art, yet their meanings are all too often taken for granted. The work of Korean artist Ha Chong-Hyun invites us to reconsider these categories beyond simple binaries. In much of Western aesthetic thought, abstraction and figuration are positioned as diametric opposites along the axis of representation. Central to this opposition is the notion of “likeness”, that is, the degree to which an image resembles the subject it depicts. From this perspective, abstraction appears detached from reality, while figuration is assumed to mirror it more truthfully. The problem with this distinction is that it presupposes an ontological primacy of mind over matter, embedded in the conception of the image as a “window” onto reality rather than as a material entity.
Ha Chong-Hyun’s practice challenges these assumptions at their very core. His works investigate abstraction as something deeply grounded in materiality, where repeated gestures – dragging, piercing, pressing – give rise to “figures” in their own right. This approach resonates with European Art Informel, but is primarily representative of the Korean Dansaekhwa movement, of which Ha Chong-Hyun is a central figure. Dansaekhwa has long been undervalued, reductively framed as tardive or derivative in relation to Western movements such as Minimalism or Abstract Expressionism. Such readings severely overlook the movement’s distinct material sensibility and the sociopolitical conditions under which it emerged.
[…]
— Pieter Vermeulen, art critic, lecturer, researcher, and curator
Abstraction and figuration are foundational terms in the context of modern and contemporary art, yet their meanings are all too often taken for granted. The work of Korean artist Ha Chong-Hyun invites us to reconsider these categories beyond simple binaries. In much of Western aesthetic thought, abstraction and figuration are positioned as diametric opposites along the axis of representation. Central to this opposition is the notion of “likeness”, that is, the degree to which an image resembles the subject it depicts. From this perspective, abstraction appears detached from reality, while figuration is assumed to mirror it more truthfully. The problem with this distinction is that it presupposes an ontological primacy of mind over matter, embedded in the conception of the image as a “window” onto reality rather than as a material entity.
Ha Chong-Hyun’s practice challenges these assumptions at their very core. His works investigate abstraction as something deeply grounded in materiality, where repeated gestures – dragging, piercing, pressing – give rise to “figures” in their own right. This approach resonates with European Art Informel, but is primarily representative of the Korean Dansaekhwa movement, of which Ha Chong-Hyun is a central figure. Dansaekhwa has long been undervalued, reductively framed as tardive or derivative in relation to Western movements such as Minimalism or Abstract Expressionism. Such readings severely overlook the movement’s distinct material sensibility and the sociopolitical conditions under which it emerged.
[…]
— Pieter Vermeulen, art critic, lecturer, researcher, and curator
27/04/2026
Galerie Ingert - Solo Show | Daido Moriyama
Galerie Ingert (CLAM-BBA) is proud to announce its next opening:
Daido Moriyama, Lettre à St Loup | Solo Show
May 6 — June 12, 2026
46 rue Madame, 75006 Paris
Opening reception: May 5, 2026, 7–9 p.m.
Lettre à St Loup: rarely has a series title so strongly invited reflection on its author’s intentions. More precisely, the pairing of this title with images of Tokyo appears as an interpretive challenge posed to the viewer.
On a sunny day in 1827, probably in spring or summer, Nicéphore Niépce placed a camera obscura in the recess of the window of his workshop. The latter was located under the eaves of his property at Le Gras in Saint-Loup-de-Varennes. For several years, he had been studying and testing the action of light on various substances, from silver salts to hydrocarbons. That day, he chose to place, vertically at the back of his dark chamber, a sheet of polished pewter coated with bitumen of Judea, facing a rustic landscape: the roofs of outbuildings, a dovecote, and, in the background, the barely visible meadows of the Chalonnais. This is all that can just be made out in the oldest surviving photograph today. Nicéphore Niépce called these experiments, produced using the camera obscura, “Points de vue.” Point de vue du Gras thus constitutes the original specimen of a discipline - photography - that would go on to produce billions more.
In the postface to Lettre à St Loup, published in 1990, Daido Moriyama affirms the decisive importance of this first image in his development as a photographer. By that time, he was no longer merely a member of the Provoke group pushing the medium to its limits - its capacity to bear witness both to reality and to the inner life of the one who presses the shutter. The questioning of the narrative modes ordinarily associated with photography - pursued in particular in Farewell Photography (1972) - and the are-bure-boke aesthetic (grainy, blurred, raw) had by then become integral to a style that functions as a manifesto.
The images that make up the series can be read as elements of an imaginary correspondence whose origin would be the View from the Window at Le Gras. Thus, for the author, everything that follows - whether in photography in general or in his own practice - is the consequence of Nicéphore Niépce’s successful experiment: “It seems to me again that the scene at St. Loup, which was recorded and fossilized, is the original scene for my photography before it was the origin of photography itself.” The attraction that heliography exerts on him undoubtedly stems, at least in part, from its rugged appearance in dark masses and the partial legibility that results from it.
If the work of the Japanese photographer bears witness to the crisis of the medium in the second half of the twentieth century - through the questioning of its objectivity and the fragmentation of its forms - his avowed return to this primitive reference underscores its continuity. This image concentrates some of the fundamental questions that animate both the discipline and the artist’s trajectory: those of the intelligibility of photography and its relationship to reality.
More than that, this first photograph functions here as a powerful creative force. The effort required to understand what it depicts is undoubtedly not unrelated to this. Daido Moriyama describes with precision this transition from the perception of a nebulous plate to the clear representation of a scene whose dazzling clarity he imagines. He sees it, feels it, and asserts that his entire body of work has had no other aim than to rediscover that light and that moment in time.
Daido Moriyama, Lettre à St Loup | Solo Show
May 6 — June 12, 2026
46 rue Madame, 75006 Paris
Opening reception: May 5, 2026, 7–9 p.m.
Lettre à St Loup: rarely has a series title so strongly invited reflection on its author’s intentions. More precisely, the pairing of this title with images of Tokyo appears as an interpretive challenge posed to the viewer.
On a sunny day in 1827, probably in spring or summer, Nicéphore Niépce placed a camera obscura in the recess of the window of his workshop. The latter was located under the eaves of his property at Le Gras in Saint-Loup-de-Varennes. For several years, he had been studying and testing the action of light on various substances, from silver salts to hydrocarbons. That day, he chose to place, vertically at the back of his dark chamber, a sheet of polished pewter coated with bitumen of Judea, facing a rustic landscape: the roofs of outbuildings, a dovecote, and, in the background, the barely visible meadows of the Chalonnais. This is all that can just be made out in the oldest surviving photograph today. Nicéphore Niépce called these experiments, produced using the camera obscura, “Points de vue.” Point de vue du Gras thus constitutes the original specimen of a discipline - photography - that would go on to produce billions more.
In the postface to Lettre à St Loup, published in 1990, Daido Moriyama affirms the decisive importance of this first image in his development as a photographer. By that time, he was no longer merely a member of the Provoke group pushing the medium to its limits - its capacity to bear witness both to reality and to the inner life of the one who presses the shutter. The questioning of the narrative modes ordinarily associated with photography - pursued in particular in Farewell Photography (1972) - and the are-bure-boke aesthetic (grainy, blurred, raw) had by then become integral to a style that functions as a manifesto.
The images that make up the series can be read as elements of an imaginary correspondence whose origin would be the View from the Window at Le Gras. Thus, for the author, everything that follows - whether in photography in general or in his own practice - is the consequence of Nicéphore Niépce’s successful experiment: “It seems to me again that the scene at St. Loup, which was recorded and fossilized, is the original scene for my photography before it was the origin of photography itself.” The attraction that heliography exerts on him undoubtedly stems, at least in part, from its rugged appearance in dark masses and the partial legibility that results from it.
If the work of the Japanese photographer bears witness to the crisis of the medium in the second half of the twentieth century - through the questioning of its objectivity and the fragmentation of its forms - his avowed return to this primitive reference underscores its continuity. This image concentrates some of the fundamental questions that animate both the discipline and the artist’s trajectory: those of the intelligibility of photography and its relationship to reality.
More than that, this first photograph functions here as a powerful creative force. The effort required to understand what it depicts is undoubtedly not unrelated to this. Daido Moriyama describes with precision this transition from the perception of a nebulous plate to the clear representation of a scene whose dazzling clarity he imagines. He sees it, feels it, and asserts that his entire body of work has had no other aim than to rediscover that light and that moment in time.
23/04/2026
MassModernDesign - Opening of a new gallery in Knokke-Heist
This weekend, the gallery opens the doors to its new seaside gallery in Knokke with an inaugural exhibition:
Form, function, and the poetry in between
Showrooms
NEW GALLERY
Zeedijk-Het Zoute 720, 8300 Knokke-Heist, Belgium
Etienne Feijns +31(0)-614177784
Jean Prouvé: Elements of Architecture
Opening cocktail on Saturday, April 25, 2026, from 17:00 to 20:00 for this exclusive, invite-only opening by the Belgian coastline.Form, function, and the poetry in between
Jean Prouvé (1901–1984) was a French designer, engineer, and self-taught architect whose work sits at one of the most exciting intersections in 20th-century design, where industrial production meets genuine artistry. The son of a craftsman, Prouvé grew up with a deep respect for materials and making, and it shows in everything he created.
Working primarily in metal, Prouvé designed furniture and architectural structures that were honest in their construction: One could always see exactly how something was made and why. His iconic pieces, from the Antony chair to his celebrated demountable houses, carry a visual logic that feels as fresh and relevant today as when they were first conceived.
Prouvé never drew a sharp line between design and architecture, between the handmade and the industrial. That refusal to choose is precisely what makes his work so enduring; and so eagerly sought after by collectors around the world.
Working primarily in metal, Prouvé designed furniture and architectural structures that were honest in their construction: One could always see exactly how something was made and why. His iconic pieces, from the Antony chair to his celebrated demountable houses, carry a visual logic that feels as fresh and relevant today as when they were first conceived.
Prouvé never drew a sharp line between design and architecture, between the handmade and the industrial. That refusal to choose is precisely what makes his work so enduring; and so eagerly sought after by collectors around the world.
Showrooms
The Knokke gallery joins our flagship showroom in Roosendaal, a vast 5,000 m² space that has long been a destination for collectors and design lovers from across Europe. From April 25, both galleries will be open to visitors, offering two distinct but complementary experiences of the Mass Modern Design world.
Whether you find us by the sea in Belgium, or in the heart of Brabant in The Netherlands, the same passion for exceptional design awaits you.
Our galleries showcase high-quality furniture from leading brands and manufacturers, alongside distinctive and unconventional pieces that set the collection apart.
Whether you find us by the sea in Belgium, or in the heart of Brabant in The Netherlands, the same passion for exceptional design awaits you.
Our galleries showcase high-quality furniture from leading brands and manufacturers, alongside distinctive and unconventional pieces that set the collection apart.
NEW GALLERY
Zeedijk-Het Zoute 720, 8300 Knokke-Heist, Belgium
Etienne Feijns +31(0)-614177784